Sundial of world news

Dressed all in black, on Wednesday before members of the Bundestag, the Chancellor was in mourning for his father, who died Saturday. But visibly relieved after the decision of the judges of the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, the German chancellor had a big smile and great days of fighting to defend the euro. Reinforcing the federal government, the wise rejected on Thursday a complaint filed by German economists and a Conservative MP. This confirms the principle of aid promised by Berlin to combat the crisis in the euro area. But in exchange the Court ordered the government to involve Parliament more.

After wearing his cap red and getting up to announce a decision solemnly waited feverishly throughout Europe, the President of the Court Vosskuhle Andreas has removed one by one the arguments of the plaintiffs Eurosceptics.Or using in Athens in spring 2010 or the creation of the European emergency EFSF "do not violate Article 38 (of the German Constitution) the right to vote", and "neither sovereignty nor the fiscal room for maneuver future parliaments "have been compromised, he said. Known for their warmth towards Europe, the sages have therefore lifted the sword of Damocles hanging over the center-right government of Angela Merkel.

Advocacy for the euro and Europe

However, the game is not yet won for the Chancellor, who must bring together parliamentarians from the majority behind the new rescue plans for the euro area. Monday night, during a test vote, twenty-five members of the ruling coalition in Germany refused to support his bill to expand the powers of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) which Germany has pledged more 200 billion euros.The rebel MPs are also opposed to new aid to Greece, they will also be asked to vote. Thanks to opposition voices, it was adopted by the Bundestag on September 29 is almost assured. But if his majority is lacking, the blow could be fatal to the coalition, Merkel could then be forced to call early parliamentary elections.

Thursday, Chancellor has therefore engaged in advocacy for the euro and Europe before the German MPs. "The Constitutional Court has absolutely confirmed" the path followed by Germany, it was welcomed. "We can not and will not let the failure of the euro," Merkel argued, reiterating that the future of Europe is at stake"If we are to avoid a major crisis in the western world (…), we need to fundamentally rethink everything," she said, adding that the accumulation of excessive debt for decades was the cause of the crisis. Marking the importance of the issue, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had gone in person in early July in Karlsruhe on behalf of the government argue the legality of the aid granted. The judges' decision "does not change the fact that decisions are difficult," he acknowledged Thursday, "but the debate on their compliance with the Constitution is over."

The Constitutional Court has in fact pointed out the powers of the Bundestag, which will give the green light "case by case for any aid of great importance." The Court held that the government has "the obligation to obtain clearance prior" to the budget committee of the Bundestag before making any commitment.No way also for Berlin to ratify agreements on a "community debt especially if it is linked to consequences difficult to predict," warned the judges. The idea of ​​creating common European obligations or "Eurobond" seems to finally buried the Rhine.

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Outside the coffee dock, near the Gare de l'Est in Paris, the formula breakfast at 7 euros. At this rate, you are entitled to two slices of bread, a croissant or pain au chocolat, orange juice and a hot drink. Marcel Bénezet not sell a dozen a day, when he easily achieves 80 seats daily.

"In France, the breakfast is just 2% of sales of cafés, bars and eateries, says the owner of the establishment, also president of cafes, bars and brasseries in the union Synhorcat. But for one short year, the market moves a little. We draw some of the clientele of hotels.More and more business appointments are also around a working breakfast between 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock. "

"Not very profitable"

Praised by business travelers, the Plaza Athénée, a Parisian palace, carries 3 million in sales a year with his breakfast, including 1.6 million in the dining room of Alain Ducasse, where 60% of the clientele has not spent the night at the hotel. A single espresso is charged 8 euros. "The average price is 50 euros per person. All patrons of the CAC 40 are there, welcomes François Delahaye, the owner of the Plaza Athénée. Breakfast loyalty. But it is not very profitable, because payroll costs as much as we noon, when the bill is four times lower. "

Breakfast remains a difficult market for restaurateurs.The French are indeed more likely to take home the Anglo-Saxons, and they have less appetite.

McDonald's France, the breakfast is less than 1% of sales. "Unlike the British, Germans and Dutch, the French are not ready to leave in the morning for their breakfast, says Isabelle Kuster, Vice President of Operations in France and Southern Europe at McDonald's. Many are content with a coffee and stay hungry until noon.To attract them, we must offer them what they prefer: an espresso and toast. "As a result, McDonald's, which sells its formula with American breakfast (pancakes and Egg McMuffin) than 250 McDonald's where the demand warrants, innovates by launching September 26th in its 130 McCafe an offer adapted to the habits of the French, with small black and baguette spread with butter and jam.

"France is the only country where the espresso and croissants topped sales in the morning," insists a spokesman for Starbucks. The American chain attracts a customer in France to 60% and 40% of local tourists. In the morning, only 30% of customers use their on-site order. "But in France, we carry a large portion of our sales between 8 am and noon, when the Germans and Spaniards are more in the afternoon," said the spokesman for Starbucks.

The anxiety begins to rise in the staffs of distributors. Since last May, in response to rising prices in hypermarkets and supermarkets, French households scratch some products of their shopping list. In late February, the central purchasing of hypermarkets and supermarkets had completed, in pain, their traditional annual tariff negotiations with food manufacturers and consumer products. They had had great difficulty in getting the increases they felt were necessary, given the soaring prices of raw materials.

Since March, distributors impact gradually increases on their labels. That month, prices in stores were up 0.67% over February, according to the institute Symphony IRI Group. Since then, a month to month, prices increase in radius each time by 0.50%."The return of inflation is beginning to be felt on the behavior of buyers in supermarkets," says Jacques Dupré, Director of Insight Symphony IRI Group, which analyzes the monthly receipts of all the major surfaces of the Hexagon .

The break in the trend is clear. Of the four months preceding the return of inflation on the shelves between November 2010 and February 2011, sales of food increased by 1.3%. And the next three months, between March and May, the increase slowed to only 0.4%.

Promotional pressure

In April, the phenomenal sales of water, beverages, beer and ice cream, boosted by high temperatures, have allowed supermarkets to record an exceptional increase their volumes, which jumped this month to 4 3% compared to April 2010. But since May, purchases in supermarkets are falling over one year.Month after month, the trend continues. "In July, the decline could even exceed 1%, says Jacques Dupré. Inflation continues to gain momentum. "

The drop in purchases is certainly less intense than in 2008. At the time, soaring raw materials led to an increase of 4.5% of the labels in three months, which had resulted in a decline in overall consumption of around 2% throughout the year, twice as large as that observed in the last three months.

"So far, arbitration is more about quantity than quality, said Jacques Dupré. Rather than falling in line, they buy a little less product. "As in 2008, consumers are tightening their belts.But they give up to afford one or two products "frivolous" (see box) rather than turn to the variety of entry-level or private labels (PLs) for items they value.

Despite the general rise in prices, domestic brands continued to be more resilient than labels distributor, yet less expensive. Until May, growth was consistently higher, thanks to promotions, which have proliferated in the first half.

Promotional pressure from national brands was released in June … and then returned to the private label market share for the first time in eighteen months. The situation remains tense rays than ever, and inflation could thus give a boost to brands.Contrary to what happened three years ago, the hard discount does not benefit from inflation and continues to lose market share.

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Treasury bills do not suffer from degradation of the note of the United States. Instead, rates remain historically low. U.S. finances are parties to drift, but investors have long known, and such a decision undermines their confidence in the ability of the United States to meet its repayments. "On the contrary, the threat of similar actions in other states has positive points: it encourages the ECB to carry more debt buyer of European public and invites States to precipitate the budgetary consolidation measures, which will strengthen intrinsic quality of government securities, "relativize Patrick Artus, Research Director of Studies and Natixis.

In fact, it is especially risky assets, which suffer from fears of contagion cuts ratings of sovereign debt.Evidenced by the plummeting global stock indexes following the shock announcement Standard & Poor's. Over the past five trading days, the Cac 40 lost almost 8%, and the index companies were affected differently. These are "primarily growth stocks" that have suffered the most, says Patrick Artus, "since the fall of 2400 billion over ten years the U.S. deficit will cost a point of growth the first year." Over the period, it is almost 70 billion euros in market capitalization went up in smoke.The equivalent (almost) the biggest company in France, namely Total!

Veolia has collapsed and literally (almost 30%) in just five sessions, within the scope of the panic that has shaken the markets, but the fall of its course is mainly attributable to the publication last week of very disappointing results, while the group left half of the countries in which it operates payday loan lenders.

For Natixis, "convinced that U.S. growth will remain weak for some time (+1.8% in 2011 and estimated 2.1% in 2012)," the companies directly related to the U.S. economy will remain permanently affected by the stroke of Soft in the U.S..This is especially true of automotive manufacturers and suppliers (Renault, Peugeot, Michelin, etc.). And IT companies (Alcatel-Lucent, CapGemini).

However, the decline in raw materials – oil fell below 80 dollars – which led to the values ​​of the construction (Lafarge, Saint-Gobain), mining or oil (ArcelorMittal, Technip, Vallourec) down in recent sessions, "should not last," said Natixis again: "The demand for commodities does not depend on the U.S. economy, but more and more of the Chinese economy, especially investment in China whose growth is weakly linked to the U.S. cycle and will remain strong. "From that side, the markets have overreacted and clearly.

As for the bank, the reactions were very different depending on the titles, which are differently exposed to the problems of sovereign debt.Societe Generale is one that has suffered most of the bad going on equity markets (down 21.7% of its stock price), while Credit Agricole has sold 13.9%, BNP Paribas, 7, 7% and Natixis, only 2.1%. However, the European banking index, the Stoxx 600 Banks, hit late Tuesday to its lowest level in two years. But overall, the French banks face the storm better than two years ago because they have strengthened their balance sheets.

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After the accident nucléraire Japan March 11 Fukushima, who questioned the safety of nuclear power in the world, Areva intends to secure its investments by standing as a major player in offshore wind Thus, the group NUCLEAR he announced Wednesday morning that it has signed a strategic partnership with Iberdrola Renewables, a subsidiary of Spanish giant Iberdrola and world leader in offshore wind to meet the tender just launched by the French government. The project, detailed by Nicolas Sarkozy last January after being repeatedly postponed, for the first phase is to establish 600 wind turbines with an installed capacity of 3,000 megawatts (MW) in France. In 2020, Nicolas Sarkozy has described the goal of 6000 MW of offshore wind, or 1200 units to be built.The specifications of the tender will be published in July, two months behind schedule.

"Areva and Iberdrola are two major areas of the five selected for the first phase of the tender," said the French group said in a statement, without giving further details. The five development zones are located on the Atlantic coast and the Channel, between Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) and Tréport (Seine-Maritime) easy pay day loans. According to the newspaper Les Echos, the areas of Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Nazaire are cited, and the two companies together produce between 500 and 750 MW of capacity. In addition, a construction group should join them "very soon".If the alliance was successful, Iberdrola Renewables will develop the project as it does in Germany or the United Kingdom while Areva exclusively manufacture and supply of wind turbines of 5 MW.

Recently, GDF-Suez and Vinci jointly responded to the tender which is a whole of 10 billion euros for zones of Dieppe-Tréport, Fecamp (both in Seine-Maritime) and Courseulles -sur-Mer (Calvados). While at the beginning of the year, Alstom and EDF Energies Nouvelles announced together to meet all of the tender.

This announcement could be the last made under the direction of Anne Lauvergeon whose term expires June 30 Luc Oursel then take the head of the Executive tomorrow, Thursday.

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Clementine Autain: temptation by HR Cadremploi

What is interesting with media characters is to find them a secret mission to which they would not have necessarily thought. Clementine Autain, feminist, anti-liberal and managing editor of the magazine has a Glance want discreet. If one day she was deprived of political activism, it would work well in the human resources function. And after all! She is interested in social issues, she is very concerned with equality at work, she has ideas to fight against unemployment and it is associated with the destiny of the Cooperative production of the magazine she runs.

When asked if she would host seminars to help women assert themselves, to develop gender equity and equality in relationships at work, she smiled, almost shy and surprised at his desire, as if that gave him perspective ideas. Clementine Autain consultant and trainer? Why not! She has the belief, it has a name that many would envy his management consultants, it has the social fiber.

With her straight talking, his capacity for argument and a sense of organization that may be suspected in any militant leftist and broke the agitation propaganda, I am increasingly convinced that Clementine might Autain to serve HRD of a real capacity for conducting seminars and training. Provided that subjects the rally. No question it, of course, training in financial markets or the implementation of a social …

Consultant yes, but with principles and fees that could finance the activities of his newspaper, Regards. So, Clementine Autain, when you run?

For the 9th consecutive year, the Great Place to Work Institute (GPTW) publishes its list of the companies in which to work in Europe. With a small change this year: the two traditional classifications of societies and more than 500 employees, has added the business called "multinational". Test required to integrate this category have been nationally ranked "business in which to work" in at least three countries.

Filed in 16 countries throughout Europe, Microsoft wins first place in the top 25 multinational companies. The U.S. computer giant is closely followed by two compatriots: the biotechnology company Amgen (Applied Molecular Genetics) and the food group Mars.

The U.S. stock market should open up on Wednesday. Futures on Standard Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 advanced in effect respectively from 1.14% to 1323.50 points and 2336.50 points to 1.10%. Tuesday, despite a warning issued recently in the United States on sovereign debt, the New York Stock Exchange was closed in the green. The market had been carried by a handful of positive indicators, including the rebound number of building permits granted and housing starts in the U.S. in March, and earnings above expectations of Goldman Sachs and Johnson & Johnson .The Dow Jones gained 0.53% to 12,266.75 points, the Nasdaq 0.63% to 2306.77 points and the Standard & Poor's 0.57% to 1312 points.

On the foreign exchange market, the single currency rebounded, returning more than $ 1.44 the day after a sharp decline, helped by faster growth in activity in the euro area in April and the success of a Greek bond issue. Around 11:20 in Paris, the euro stood at 1.4477 dollars against 1.4334 dollars late Tuesday.

For his part ounce of gold surpassed $ 1,500. The yellow metal has in fact touched 1,500.70 dollars in Hong Kong Wednesday. His role as a safe intensifies as inflation and pressure on European and American debts are increasing.

On the macroeconomic front, except the American flag on home resales in March, no other figure is expected.However, corporate earnings will continue to lead the market.

Light on the technological

The side of values, the technology sector should indeed be at the party after the right figures published by two American giants, Intel and IBM-have for the first quarter pleasantly surprised investors by announcing better than expected results.World No. microprocessors, Intel has indeed released Tuesday after the close of Wall Street net income up 29% and higher expectations for the first quarter to 3.2 billion, a figure matched business "record" due to strong growth in all sectors.

For its part, the Internet portal américainYahoo! always said Tuesday after closing a marked decline in its profit and its turnover in the first quarter, mainly because of falling revenue from sponsored sites. The benefit of Yahoo has far exceeded analyst expectations of $ 223 million (-28%). The group's turnover fell from 24% to $ 1.24 billion.

Also note, according to Bloomberg, Bank of America (BAC) may split its private equity division estimated at 5 billion.For his part, Polaris Industries (PII) announced the acquisition of Indian Motorcycle for an unspecified amount.

Core Laboratories of his side recorded a first quarter revenue of $ 207 million up 10% over a year and expects a turnover of 215 to 220 million dollars for the second quarter.

CSX Corp. has announced first quarter earnings of $ 1.06 per share up 36% over a year and a turnover of 2.8 billion up 13%.

Juniper Networks also unveiled for the first quarter earnings per share of $ 0.32 and revenue of $ 1.1 billion up 21% year on year.For the current quarter, Juniper visa earnings per share 0.31 to $ 0.34 and sales from 1.13 to 1.18 billion dollars.

NRG Energy has announced its withdrawal from Phases 3 and 4 of the South Texas Project, and will depreciate its entire investment in Nuclear Innovation North America in the first quarter for $ 481 million before taxes.

Today investors expect another round of quarterly results to Wall Street. They watched figures including United Technologies, AT & T Wells Fargo or American Express.

For this last week's meeting, the CAC 40 struggled to take off, after surging 1.41% on Thursday. The index in Paris rose 0.20% to 3976.95 points. In London, the FTSE rises 0.33% to 5900.57 points while in Frankfurt the Dax advance of 0.12% to 6942.03 points.

The caution is when the problems of sovereign debt of countries of the European Union back to haunt the markets. Fitch and Standard & Poor's (S & P) lowered the rating of sovereign debt by two notches from Portugal, because of "increased political uncertainty" that has shaken the country since the resignation of Prime Minister Jose Socrates.

European leaders are meeting just since Thursday in Brussels to find a way to fly to the rescue of the country and avoid a domino effect.They endorsed the night of Thursday to Friday a comprehensive system of defense against crises of debt that carries the actual capacity of the Fund's lending support to countries in the Eurozone in trouble from 250 to 440 billion euros.

The Japanese nuclear supervision

In addition, the Japanese nuclear situation remains worrying. This Friday, the operator of the plant in Fukushima, Tepco, said that the work of rehabilitation of the plant could take another month because of the difficulties encountered by workers to cool the reactors.

In Libya, fighting continued between armed forces of Colonel Gaddafi and the coalition forces.The NATO countries have agreed on Thursday to take command of military intervention and will next week over the coalition led by France, Great Britain and the United States.

U.S. GDP revised upward in 2010

However, operators should carefully monitor the indicators of the day. On the menu this Friday:

– French GDP in the fourth quarter. Insee said Friday it has revised upwards to 0.4% growth in gross domestic product of France in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to the previous quarter. A first estimate published on Feb. 15 gave an increase of 0.3%.

– The French consumer confidence has deteriorated more than expected in March, returning to its level of last July partly because of fears about price trends, shows the monthly business survey released Friday by the INSEE .The composite indicator of consumer confidence has emerged after 85 to 83 in February.

– Money supply M3 in the euro area rose by 2% in February (+1.5% in January).

– The barometer Ifo business climate, the main index of business confidence in Germany fell to 111.1 points in March, ending nine months of increases in a row and a record high of 111.3 points in February, according to figures released Friday.

– Overseas, economic growth accelerated sharply in the fourth quarter – GDP grew by 3.1% against 2.8% forecast by the Ministry of Commerce and 2.9% by analysts – allowing States USA finished 2010 on a rise better than expected at 2 paydayloans.9%, according to figures released Friday in Washington.

As for currencies, the euro was stable against the dollar at 1.4166 dollars against 1.4168 on Thursday.

On oil markets, a barrel of light sweet crude for May delivery yielded 3 cents to 105.57 dollars. That of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery gained 21 cents to 115.93 dollars. "Oil prices remain high due to geopolitical tension and underlying factors that support lessons, and this dynamic market seems set to continue," note analysts at Barclays Capital in a note.

Values ​​to follow

Farm Credit: + 2.22% to 12.20 euros

Farm Credit has the highest increase of ACC on Friday, while BNP Paribas qu'Exane initiated coverage of French banks with a buy recommendation on the green bank.The analyst opinion adopted a "outperform" on the Crédit Agricole, with a target price of 16.70 euros.

Edenred: + 0.33% to 21.34 euros

Edenred the group's title, after the split in July with the Accor hotel group, continued his progress on Friday, still worn by various rumors about a possible takeover of the company or paying a special dividend. The work took more than 18.5% over the last five sessions

Eurazeo: + 5.03% to 55.75 euros

The group announced Friday the creation of value target of two billion euros by 2014, a goal that comes as the investment company just return to profit in 2010.Moreover Eurazeo and fund Colony Capital exclude launch a bid for hotel group Accor, which they together hold 32.79% of voting rights, to come into compliance with new regulations, said Friday Patrick Sayer, Chairman the Executive Eurazeo.

Schneider Electric: + 0.72% to 119.40 euros

The group announced Thursday it had acquired US Summit Energy specializes in services for Energy, for $ 189 million.

Lagardère: -0.45% to 30.03 euros, Vivendi: + 0.25% to 19.74 euros

Canal + will launch at the end of a free television channel, announced the CEO of the encrypted string in an interview with Le Figaro.

TF1 (-4.02% to 12.90 euros) and M6 (-2.52% to EUR 18) react badly to the news.

Lafarge: + 0.84% ​​to 44.25 euros

Based on a review of the MFA, the Egyptian Sawiris family increased its shareholding in cement producer of over 14% in March.

EDF Energies Nouvelles: -0.53% to 35.75 euros

The group announced Thursday it had signed two contracts in Canada of electricity supply in 20 years with Hydro-Quebec for wind projects totaling 49.2 megawatts.

France Telecom: + 0.03% to 15.69 euros

Polish operator TPSA its announced Thursday it had sold its subsidiary Emitel $ 1.7 billion zlotys (423 million euros) at the bottom of Montagu Private Equity.

The Bel Cheese must publish their annual results this Friday.

The results are not completely definitive, but the yes vote heavily – around 70%. The 4180 Air France pilots were invited by the National Union of Airline Pilots (SNPL) to decide until Friday evening on the principles of negotiation to be conducted with management to reorganize the business short-and medium- mail, attacked by low-cost companies.

The pilots' union, emerged winner of workplace elections – with 71.2% of the vote in his class – became the main interlocutor for the management of Air France to build its "bases province."These four platforms, based at the airports of Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and Bordeaux, should help to decentralize the flight short and medium haul, by modeling the utilization of the devices on low-cost airlines.

The management of the company now plans to base ten units on each base, which would mobilize a total of one thousand volunteers. The Cockpit living near the bases would not have to make stopovers, which should allow the company to save money. According to calculations by the management of Air France, the reorganization should reach 15% overall savings to return to profitability.

But for the project to see the day, management and unions of pilots, stewardesses and stewards must agree on a new social setting."The referendum gives us a mandate to start negotiations," said Louis Jobard, spokesman for the SNPL, commander of Air France.

While Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, CEO of Air France-KLM, in recent months had shown a degree of caution on its ability to open these bases this summer as planned, the pilots of SNPL seem more optimistic since the plebiscite in workplace elections.

New referendum

For them, an agreement was possible in June. "This is not a classic negotiation, said Jean-Louis Barber, the SNPL. It involves building a project and to share it with the entire profession. Changing conditions of use of devices will affect the organization of working time, the compensation system … And we want to ensure the same level of security for passengers, while the pace of work will be more sustained.We organize April 8 a general meeting with the drivers to clarify some points as compensation. Then we will enter into negotiations with management. "

In late May, the negotiators should hold a new referendum could lead to an agreement in June. A schedule that would allow Pierre-Henri Gourgeon display a table of honor at the next general meeting of shareholders. His term expires this summer.