Archive for the ‘life’ Category

Renewal of Nuclear Eldorado or mirage?

March 8, 2010 - 3:26 pm Comments Off

It is the global rush on atomic reactors. Nicolas Sarkozy opened Monday morning an international conference on access to civilian nuclear technology that would bring together a thousand participants including some forty foreign ministers and the new Director General of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), Japan Yukiya Amano.

Not less than sixty States have shown in recent years with the Vienna their desire for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. "The expectation in these countries is very strong," said an organizer of the conference. Iran and North Korea, which have violated their international obligations, have not been invited to Paris, unlike Syria and Libya.

Click on image to enlarge.

French Cheese: weak exports

March 8, 2010 - 9:23 am Comments Off

Exports of French cheeses have dried up in 2009, according to French customs. In value exports fell 4.8% to 2.5 billion euros as in volume, with a decline of 1.7% to 591,121 tonnes. Exports represent 30% of French production.

The price of milk in question

The primary cause of this decline is the price of milk. Highest average of 15% in France compared to Germany and 9.5% from the Netherlands. Germany is Europe's largest exporter of cheese in front of France since 2003 in volume and value since 2006.

This drop increases with the cheeses using milk as much of the Emmental. Its exports fell 10% in 2009 and processed cheese, like Saint-Moret or Laughing Cow, requiring a lot of milk, they decreased by 13.5%.These high prices are crises repetitions of French dairy farmers, worried about the fall of their income.

For other reasons, Gruyère is also in a delicate situation. The European Commission may not give the French Gruyere the protected designation of origin (PDO), leaving the field open to Swiss Gruyere . The decision will be made in a few months.

Prospects in the U.S.

However, signs of recovery in the high end is particularly noticeable in the U.S. market, the first destination of French cheeses outside the European Union ahead of Switzerland and Japan. Arnaud Gauthier, cheese and creator of Frenchcheese club, said that "the U.S. market is a huge potential."He created a club offering premium products and to penetrate different markets in terms of complicated legislation. Example: the tripling of tariffs on Roquefort cheese in January 2009.

French cheesemakers are two sides to the Paris Bourse. Bel Cheese (The Laughing Cow, Boursin, Babybel …) and Bongrain (Caprice gods, Coeur de Lion, Tartar …). At the opening of trading on Friday, as the Cheese Fair was up 2.38% to 129 euros and that of Bongrain at equilibrium (0.06%) to 54.55 euros.

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Veolia Environnement: 2009 earnings better than expected

March 5, 2010 - 2:10 pm Comments Off

Veolia Environment is doing well in 2009. The group, which publishes Better Canada on Friday reported a net profit group share of 584 million euros, a sharp rise of 44% compared to 2008. It is far more than expected by the markets as analysts expected an increase of 34%.

Regarding turnover, however, performance is online. The group's revenues decline by 3.4% to 34.551 billion euros. Observers expected a decline of 2%.

The group expects an increase in its operating performance in 2010, further reducing costs.

Veolia Environnement intends to pay its shareholders a dividend of 1.21 euro per share for the year 2009. This proposal will be voted at the General Meeting of May 7

More details to follow ….

At the Paris Bourse, Total and Renault will set the tone

February 11, 2010 - 7:36 pm Comments Off

In a session marked by a new series of major publications and the summit in Brussels, the CAC 40 should navigate the uncertainty Thursday. On Wednesday, the index in Paris gained 0.63% to 3635 points.

On the macroeconomic front, investors will listen closely to the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Governments of the European Union devoted to the economic crisis and to preserve the European social model. Germany could announce his signing on backup plan for Greece.

Furthermore, INSEE releases its survey of investment in the industry for the month of January.By late morning, the banks have an appointment with the Minister of Economy and Finance, Christine Lagarde, to discuss the credit.

In the United States, figures are expected in retail sales for the month of January, weeks claimed unemployment, inventories and business sales for the month of December.

New series of publciations

After the publication of ArcelorMittal, PSA, Sanofi Aventis and Nexans, a new series is scheduled for Thursday morning: Alcatel-Lucent, Total, EDF, Danone, Renault or Dassault Systems .M6 publish after-hours trade.

Alcatel-Lucent posted a net loss of 524 million euros in 2009 and 2009 sales down 10.8% to 15.1 billion euros.

France Telecom announced it would invest two billion euros in a fiber optic network by 2015 in densely populated areas of France by 2015, thus removing the freeze on spending in this area.

Air France-KLM reported a net loss of 295 million euros in Q3 2009-2010. The operating loss in Q3 reached 245 million and the company expects an operating loss similar to T4.

Property Walls said he expected a new stability of its recurring net profit in 2010 and expected to maintain a dividend to 1.40 euros.

The group acting CRITT announced a decrease of 7.3% of sales in Q4 2009 to 298 million euros.

Berlin completes his tax plan antifraudeurs

February 7, 2010 - 12:56 am Comments Off

Angela Merkel has found his political instinct thanks to German tax evaders. Criticized since the inauguration of his new center-right government in late October for his lack of leadership, the chancellor has imposed against the will of its partners liberal FDP and the barons of his party, the CDU, the purchase files containing the names of thousands of taxpayers who have hidden assets in Switzerland. The German opinion ranks behind Merkel's opinion and personalities of all political gradually overcome their moral reservations about buying stolen data, to endorse its decision.

100 000 taxpayers

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, citing sources close to the investigation, fraud could be much more massive than was originally estimated.After studying hundreds of cases randomly draws the German tax authorities now believes it could recover up to 400 million euros. According to several sources, the data come from the second Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, also reaffirms the daily despite the denials of the institution. In addition, an "internal estimate" of the bank can show that up to 100 000 taxpayers German practice of tax evasion in Switzerland, for a total of 34 billion Swiss francs (23 billion euros), says Süddeutsche Zeitung cash till payday .

Internal documents from Credit Suisse from 2004 might suggest that "over 80% of all Germans who deposit money into accounts at Credit Suisse, Switzerland, German tax authorities to conceal the proceeds of their interests" .An informant offers to sell the files to the German government, for 2.5 million euros a bargain defended the more convinced by the Chancellor that some fraudsters have engaged in concealment amounting to several million euros. "I think there is a common interest in the information. Tax evasion is not a crime chivalrous, "said Friday, the Chancellor.

Legal experts have now the treasury verified all the legal implications related to the purchase of the list, and the way is clear for its acquisition. Fraudsters have only a few hours to withdraw without risking additional sanctions.

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Greece under the supervision of Brussels

February 3, 2010 - 5:00 pm Comments Off

Athens finally got the good report from Brussels. The European Commission ruled Wednesday that the savings plan acceptable Greek. "The Commission shares the ambitious deficit reduction that the Greek government has set, and the fiscal and structural reforms announced in the stability program," she said in a statement.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, had presented new budget measures, including freezing the salaries of all officials at the last moment on Tuesday evening. The Commission appreciated the welcoming approach.

The approval of Brussels is not a blank check.The Commission "calls on Greece to explain the tax measures announced and the timetable for their implementation in the coming weeks" and ", more detailed measures to be implemented in 2011 and 2012.

Athens will be placed under surveillance free credit reports . "The way to help, not only applaud, is to establish a monitoring tool and monitoring the implementation of this program" fiscal recovery, "said European Commissioner for economic, Joaquin Almunia. "For the first time we put in place a monitoring system as intense and almost continuous, but is necessary given the circumstances."

Confidence does not reign. Greece has for several years, played the unreliability of its statistics.In this regard, it will be an infringement procedure.

After the announcement of the Commission, the Greek bond yields back down to 6.516% against 6.742% on Wednesday morning around 8:30.

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The Cac 40 in the green returns

January 15, 2010 - 7:14 am Comments Off

Optimism is back in the Paris Bourse in mid-afternoon Thursday, while U.S. statistics, published at 14:30, emerged in below expectations. ACC back above the 4,000-point mark.

The number of registered unemployed in the United States was up more than expected during the week ending January 9, according to figures released Thursday by the Labor Department.In data adjusted for seasonal variations, these weekly applications for unemployment benefits rose for the second consecutive week to 444,000 against 433,000 (revised) the previous week.

Another disappointment, retail sales in the U.S. fell against all odds in December, according to official figures released Thursday in Washington, but this masks a bad performance review of their surge up the previous two months.

Around 15.15, the CAC 40 yields 0.08%, to 3997 points, passing under the 4,000 points.

Investors will also pay attention to the news conference the Director General of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at 16 hours and the speech of the Governing Council of the ECB.

The latter announced that its key policy rate should remain at 1% level where it remains since May 2009.In the U.S., retail sales for December at 14.30, the import price for the same month at the same time, as well as requests weekly unemployment benefits will be scrutinized.

As for currencies, the euro decreased again. The European currency fell by 0.13% to 1.4503 dollars. For raw materials, oil appears in sharp decline. The barrel of light sweet crude for February delivery lost 2.84% to 79.29 dollars, while that of Brent North Sea at the same maturity, lost 2.40% to 77.76 dollars. Oil stocks have risen more than expected last week in the United States.

Ubisoft suffers

The Renault Group (Renault, Dacia, Samsung and Lada) in 2009 recorded a decrease of 3.1% of its global sales to 2.3 million vehicles in global market decline of 3.7% and a slight increase its market share (+0.1 percentage points to 3.7%), it intends to strengthen in 2010. Figures similar to those unveiled by Peugeot (+1.47%) a few days ago. After gleaning 0.1% at the opening, title coward 0.43% to 39.32 euros in mid-session.

The French game publisher Ubisoft video Wednesday revised downward its financial targets for its fiscal year 2009/2010 lagged, partly because of disappointing sales of some games and the postponement of several launches. Sanction Immediate Exchange: action coward 4.67%, to 9.6 euros. It is the largest decline of the SBF 120.

GDF Suez has announced the sale to Shell Egypt for a 20% concession in the Alam El Shawish, and keeps 25%.The sign under the worst performance of the ACC with a decline of 2.21% to 29.16 euros.

The group Vivendi (+0.2% at 21.02 euros), which challenged the participation of two of its shareholders and Adam collective proceedings conducted in the United States, was dismissed Wednesday by the Tribunal de Grande Instance Paris.

The French ready-to-wear Camaieu (+4.89% to 148.94 euros) plans to continue its development policy in 2010 and plans to open nearly a hundred shops.

bioMérieux (+3.12% at 83.02 euros) on Thursday announced the acquisition of Meikang Biotech, a Chinese manufacturer of rapid tests, and its production site in Shanghai. Vet'Affaires (7.38%) reported a turnover of 92.7 million euros in 2009. Riber (-2.80%) confirmed its net profit target for 2009.

This is the second day of strike in the Paris airports (ADP).A two flights was canceled Thursday morning following the request of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to Orly airport, the second day of strike among air traffic controllers, has been a journalist from AFP . The action takes ADP 0.68% to 57.81 euros.

A monitor also: Pernod Ricard (-0.05%)) who will make a point about its business. Carrefour (-0.53%) will release its annual results after the stock market.

Alcatel is the challenge of saving energy

January 12, 2010 - 7:06 am Comments Off

The world of telecom and Internet is one of the largest energy consumers in the world. Also, the giants of the industry can not stand idly by. Alcatel-Lucent and its famous Bell Labs in the United States have therefore taken the initiative to create a consortium, called "Green Touch" to floor on this issue. From the outset, the consortium brings together the best researchers. Around the Bell Labs of Alcatel and research laboratories of Samsung of South Korea are three of the most prestigious American universities specializing in technology: Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard. The National Institute for Research in Computer Science (INRIA) and laboratories from CEA-Leti in Grenoble are part of the French side, and the Belgian research institute IMEC.Finally, two operators, Telefonica, and Swisscom, join the adventure.

For six months, Bell Labs, the famous centers of R & D of Alcatel-Lucent, consider a crucial question: "How much energy a telecommunications network can it be reduced without affecting capacity information transmission? "

Networks must be completely redesigned, including the architecture should be changed. For example, "wireless telecommunications are one of the largest contributors to the energy needs of a network. It is easy to reduce the power emitted by an antenna, and therefore consumption, removing his show in all directions in space and focus the signal to the next station or end user, "says the boss research at Bell Labs.Moreover, the power of an antenna of a wireless network can be reduced by using tricks to encode the signal. "Thus, information can be extracted even if the noise level is high." Architecture is another central point: "To perform a calculation, the human brain needs a million times less energy a computer, thanks to its apparently chaotic! "

Consumption divided by 10 000

"After six months of work, we have calculated, based on our many disciplines such as physics, mechanics and quantum computing, it is possible to reduce, at most, by 10 000 energy d a telecommunications network, "said Gee Rittenhouse, head of research at Bell Labs. "We can not do everything alone.We have therefore decided to create a consortium, called "Green Touch," whose objective is already reduced by 1 000 the energy of a telecommunications network within five years. This consortium will bring together four groups of actors: universities, industrial laboratories, research institutes, non-profit and telecommunications operators, "said Gee Rittenhouse.

Besides protecting the environment, this research will have another impact: Increase the amount of data transmitted in the network without increasing the radiation, which concern both consumer groups.

Aurel BCG provides a 10% increase on the ACC in 2010

December 31, 2009 - 7:19 am Comments Off

Scenario "mixed" in 2010, Aurel BCG. For the investment company, next year will look like a year of transition, marked by a gradual normalization of interest rates decided by the central banks, and during which growth must learn to stand on its own wings in freeing themselves from support plans of governments.

Buoyed by forecasts of the International Monetary Fund, which reported a growth in world GDP of 3.9% in 2010 – with Asia as the main engine (+9.5% for China and 7.5 % for India) – Aurel Leven provides that the government plans to continue to support recovery activities, at least the first half of 2010.

For the second half of the year, Aurel precludes any recovery scenario L or W.The broker sees a recovery "classic" of activity, namely a recovery of employment and investment after a dynamic side of the business activity. According to Christian Parisot, Director of Research of Aurel, central banks are "very progressive" back their rates. The broker forecasts indicate a refinancing rate to 1.5% at end 2010, the United States and Europe, 2% in the United Kingdom and 0.3% in Japan."In addition, the movement of recovery will give a boost to international trade," said Christian Parisot at a presentation of his predictions for 2010 in early December.

Go back, go back for more

Financial markets later, Alexander the Drogoff, head of technical analysis at Aurel, displays a degree of caution in the first quarter, "markets should shrink during the first weeks of the year, while stock indexes hit areas strong psychological resistance, "he said at the conference.Between March and December 2009, the European stock indices and U.S. have in effect removed between 40 and 60% of losses incurred between September 2007 and March 2009.

Specifically, Aurel table on a retracement between 930 and 960 points the S & P 500 (approximately -15%) horizon three months, before resuming the path gently rising, reaching timidly 1 200 points at the end of 2010. In Europe, the DJ Stoxx 600, around 250 points in late 2009, is expected between 215 and 220 points in the month of February.

In Paris the CAC 40, which hovers around 3800 points since early December, should yield about 5% in three months horizon for refranchir the 4,000 points in mid-2010 and peak at 4300 points by December 2010. On a year the Parisian flagship index would therefore rise by just over 10%. Same forecast Frankfurt the Dax 30 should clinch a little over 600 points in one year, to 6.400 points.Overall, for 2010, Aurel recommends priority areas of distribution and supply in a context of economic recovery. The chemistry, technology stocks and health are also recommended. In contrast, the automotive sector and the activities of banks and insurance are excluded. (INFOGRAPHY 2?)

The Fed played a very

For Aurel, 2010 should not book too many surprises: a priori, only changes in the communication from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) could induce a violent reaction in the bond market and the dollar, but we believe the tightening of Monetary policy will be smooth, "said Christian Parisot. In contrast, 2011, uncertainties, while the fiscal tightening needed to cope with issues of size: the public accounts.Especially as the interest rate long-term risk of straining the economy recovers – Aurel is 4.2% at twelve months, against 3.3% in Europe today – a much higher cost of debt .

The dollar should, according to the Bureau of analysis, continue to strengthen against major currencies after signs of improvement in the U.S. economy. "Now the dollar is now several months since an indicator of risk aversion," said Christian Parisot, adding that when the dollar appreciates, the fear of risk is increasing and the stock markets are penalized.According to Aurel BCG, the dollar should rise further, to the "pivot area" of 1.4625 dollars per euro, "and why not climb to 1.35 in six months," Alexander Legrodoff omen.

Regarding gold, Aurel anticipates a "zone of turbulence", after an explosive year 2009 when the yellow metal has chained record after record, with a zenith at 1210 dollars an ounce hit in early December. "Considering past trends and technical indicators, the gold price is expected to contract 25 to 30% off at $ 1,000, or return the $ 925 threshold in the coming weeks," Alexander the Drogoff supports.

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France: Consumer stalled in November

December 23, 2009 - 9:23 pm Comments Off

The consumption of manufactured goods rose more households in November. After a 1% increase in October, the index has shown quasi-stable -0, 1%, according to figures from INSEE.

This figure was supported, as in previous months, by buying cars in significant increase of 4.2% in line with the trend observed since August. "The household benefit last months of premium breaks down before his scheduled first next January, said Insee.

In contrast, spending on equipment housing slows markedly, to 0.2%, against 2.1% in October. "If they keep their spending in electrical and electronic households have reduced their spending on furniture," said INSEE.

The week's floating balances authorized in November did not save the textiles and leather. Purchases fell 1.8% in November, two months after dynamic (+2.4% in October and 3% in September).

In 2009, INSEE expects a limited increase in consumption of 0.7%, after 0.9% in 2008. Consumption is the traditional engine of French growth and growing at a rate of 2 to 2.5% until 2007.