Hot Economic News Releases

The plan to support the U.S. economy contributed 4.5% in real gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2010 and allowed to deliver up to 3.3 million people in employment, said Tuesday Budget Office Congress (OBC).

The CBO estimates, a bipartisan agency, believes the support plan, whose effects are challenged by the Republican Party, has prevented the economy contracted between April and June

Economists polled by Reuters expect the revised figures, which will be released Friday, show that GDP grew at an anemic pace of 1.4% in the second quarter, less than the 1.7% increase announced in the first estimate.

The CBO also estimates that support plan has put between 1.4 and 3.3 million jobs in the second quarter.

The total cost of the plan to support the U.S. economy should come out to 814 billion dollars while the CBO anticipated amount of around 862 billion dollars from a previous estimate.

Procter & Gamble announces earnings below expectations during the fourth quarter, sales growth could not offset higher marketing expenses.

The group of consumer products said that investments in new products launched this year – Pampers Dry Max, ProGlide Fusion razor and tooth whitening strips Crest 3D White outpaced growth of 5% of turnover 'net sales.

"Next year will be another great year of innovation for us and we will invest accordingly," said CFO Jon Moeller, during a teleconference with the press.

Net income for the quarter ended June 30 was $ 2.19 billion, or 71 cents per share, against 2.47 billion (80 cents) a year earlier.The Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S gave an EPS of 73 cents.

The turnover stood at 18.93 billion dollars (19.1 billion consensus).

P & G expects earnings per share of 97 cents to $ 1.01 in the first quarter of the year, and an organic growth of 3% to 5%.

Effects of unfavorable exchange rates would reduce net revenue growth of 3%.

Analysts are waiting for their share of $ 1.04 a share, in the first quarter.

The share lost 5.3% to 59.77 dollars in pre-market after these announcements.

BNP Paribas publishes a net profit increase of 31.2% for the second quarter, above expectations, thanks to a sharper than expected decline in provisions for bad loans, offsetting lower revenues from its market activities.

The second bank in the euro zone by market capitalization, after Spain's Santander, said in a statement that recorded a net profit of 2.105 billion euros in the quarter ended June 30, with net banking income up 11 , 8% to 11.17 billion.

His provisions for risk of loss on the credit fell by 53.9% to 1.08 billion euros.

The consensus of the writing for Reuters on average expected a net increase of only 8% to 1.7 billion euros and provisions were down 36%.

BNP Paribas also said to be "ahead" on its program of synergies from the integration of the Belgian bank Fortis acquired last year, with 402 million euros of synergies on a target of 900 million.

In corporate finance and investment, the decline in profit before tax is also less than expected at 16.4% in the second quarter against 20% expected by the market.

Elsewhere in Europe, Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse have also announced last week the quarterly results above market expectations.

The German group Deutsche Bank's side recorded a drop in supplies.

The European banking sector has benefited in recent days a series of good news.

The results of stress tests that have been submitted 91 banks in the European Union and the announcement by the Basel Committee that it would make its proposed regulations have indeed helped to allay investor concerns about the soundness of sector balance sheets.

Since the beginning of the year, the benchmark Stoxx 600 European banks rose 0.36%. The action of BNP Paribas has cut its losses recently but it is still in decline of 5.7% since 1 January.

Societe Generale, the second French bank by market capitalization, reports earnings on Wednesday.

U.S. stocks opened lower after the announcement of a sharper than expected slowdown in economic growth in the U.S. in the second quarter.

In the first exchanges, the Dow Jones lost 0.8% or 80.53 points to 10,386 points while the Standard & Poor's 500 index yielded 0.9% or 10.25 points to 1090 points and the composite index the Nasdaq fell by 1.2% or 27.41 points to 2224.54 points.

The U.S. economy slowed sharply in the second quarter at an annualized rate of 2.4% against 3.7% in the first quarter, according to figures published Friday in the first estimate by the Commerce Department. The market was expecting growth of 2.5%.

On the values front, Merck was down 1.6%.The pharmaceutical company has yet reported Friday in quarterly earnings above expectations.

Chevron was down 0.8% despite a profit tripled in the second quarter.

Boeing released a quarterly earnings above expectations but down from last year due to lower deliveries of aircraft.

The U.S. group, world number two sector behind Airbus (EADS) has achieved in second quarter net earnings of $ 787 million, or $ 1.06 per share, against 998 million ($ 1.41 per share) a year earlier.

Financial analysts had expected a profit of $ 1.01 per share according to Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S.

The quarterly revenue fell 9% year on year to 15.6 billion dollars.

Sales of the division of civil aviation has dropped 12% to $ 7.4 billion aircraft deliveries declined by 9%.Boeing Commercial Airplaines recorded 88 orders for the quarter and 20 cancellations.

The backlog stood at 3,304 civil aircraft late June, for a value of 252 billion dollars.

The turnover of the defense business has declined in parallel from 8% to $ 8 billion, mainly due to lower volumes in the Network & Space Systems branch.

Net sales of Boeing Capital has dropped 3% to 162 million.

Norsk Hydro believes that the aluminum market may have reached its highest level this year in the second quarter and maintained its forecast of growth of 12% of its markets upstream and downstream in 2010.

The Norwegian producer of aluminum has made a profit before interest and taxes (EBIT) current of 1.1 billion kroner (137 million euros) in the second quarter, after losing 618 million kronor last year on same period. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a profit of 900 million kroner.

"The numbers are very solid," said Samir Bendriss, an analyst with Pareto."They are particularly successful in the upstream activity, with higher prices, higher volumes and lower costs than expected."

The group assigns him, this performance to increase its volumes, the strength of its margins and tight control of costs.

"We still anticipate that demand in our major markets upstream and downstream will grow by about 12% in 2010," he said.

However, Norsk Hydro estimates that the global market for aluminum is oversupplied despite the recovery in demand linked to the moderate recovery of economic growth.

"There are many elements that suggest that the second quarter will be stronger in 2010", said group general manager, Svein Richard Brandtzaeg, at a press conference.

The group said world demand for primary aluminum, excluding China, has increased in the second quarter to an annualized level of consumption of around 24 million tonnes, while production outside of China increased 25 million tons on an annualized basis.

"Demand should be stable in the third quarter but with a normal seasonal decline," said Norsk Hydro.

The Norwegian group also warned that its results for its underlying activities of alumina (aluminum oxide) and raw materials are expected to fall in the second half after a solid six months, due to an expected drop courses alumina and rising costs of bauxite.

"The decline (will be) following the expected decline in margins," the group said.

Around 9:45 GMT, was virtually unchanged at 34.96 crowns.

Mizuho Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group can view each more than 100 billion yen (885 million) profit for April-June period, reports the Nikkei newspaper.

The newspaper claims that large Japanese banks have grown their results for their fiscal first quarter thanks to their trading operations, while recording lower losses on bad loans through a smaller number of large bankruptcies.

Mizuho, which posted a loss of 4.4 billion yen for the period April to June 2009 due to losses on the CDS (credit default swaps) should post a profit of around 150 billion yen for the same period this year with its trading, the Nikkei wrote.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group should in turn generate between 150 and 200 billion yen profit, against a profit of 72.7 billion last year, the newspaper said without citing sources.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group for its part should record a profit of more than 100 billion yen, against 75.9 billion a year earlier, writes the Nikkei.

Banks are under pressure to improve their credit operations, while long term rates are at their lowest level in five years, also highlighted the daily.

Weak retail sales in France since the beginning of the year raises concerns for household consumption, but without calling into question the prospect of a mild acceleration of growth in the second quarter.

INSEE said on Friday down 1.4% of household spending on manufactured goods in June after an increase (revised) 0.6% in May, which was only the second of the year.

Throughout the second quarter, they fell 0.9% after falling 1.9% in January-March.

Purchases of manufactured goods only represent about a fifth of consumer spending on goods and services, including food, a statistic that is much less volatile and released only on a quarterly basis.

Household consumption has stagnated in the first quarter and is still waiting INSEE stalled in second quarter net sales to be known on August 13 during the initial results of the national accounts.

Some economists, like Dominique Barbet from BNP Paribas, now does not preclude a decline in household consumption, which would be a first since the second quarter of 2008.

But, he says, the strength of industrial production and exports expected to "save" the growth in the second quarter, it expects to 0.4% or 0.5% after the meager 0.1% the first three months of the year.

"That said, the outlook is still quite weak and not with this level of consumption we can expect 1.5 to 2.0% growth per year," he adds.

Bercy, it remains serene by estimating it would take a 0.3% or more of household consumption to speak stall."Nothing like on the radar", make sure there in the entourage of the Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde.

CONCERN FOR THE FUTURE

Regarding industrial production, it was not until August 10 to hear the numbers of the second quarter, but May's increase (+1.7% and +0.5% for the only manufacturing) was a good omen.

Already, the quarterly business survey released Friday by INSEE showed that the request to industry has made significant progress on these three months, but prospects are less favorable then.

"We had a sort of dichotomy between demand indicators that are not extraordinary, except perhaps for export, and offer those who are supported, as shown by surveys from INSEE" observes Dominique Barbet

He added: "The concern is more for the future."

Nick Kojucharov, Europe economist at Goldman Sachs, the link between low spending on manufactured goods and consumer confidence, which has faltered significantly since the beginning of the year.

"That does not mean that the recovery derailed in France – surveys and industrial production are trending up – but that French consumers, who strongly supported the request at the beginning of the recovery, now is the key" says he.

Down nine points since January, the consumer confidence indicator calculated by INSEE has stabilized at -39 in July, its lowest level since May 2009.

The decline in household spending in June is in large part to the launch late summer sales, June 30 instead of June 25 in 2009.

This contemplates an upward correction in July, but only temporarily according to economists.And anyway, "the fact that consumers have stopped buying clothes from three months to wait for the summer sales is not really what we might call a positive signal to private consumption, observes Olivier Gasnier of Societe Generale.

The high level of unemployment, worries about tax and the evolution of the purchasing power of households should continue to curb consumption, he adds.

If the support of replenishment orders and exports fades at the same time, the prospect of slower growth in the third quarter will be inevitable, confirming the slow recovery.

In its last forecast in June, Insee expecting 0.4% growth in the third and fourth quarter, after +0.5% in April-June, a pace sufficient to meet the government target of 1.4% on year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) intends to increase its lending capacity of 750-1000 billion dollars to prevent future financial crises, the Financial Times.

The organization wishes to enter into agreements to advance on a case by case basis with member states, rather than offering loans under certain conditions, the newspaper said without citing sources.

"Even during periods of crisis, a large fund that can take massive can help prevent crises," explained Dominique Strauss Kahn, IMF managing director, in the columns of the Sunday edition of the FT.

"The fact that the decreasing financial role does not mean we can do without a big fire power (…) A fund of 1.000 billion is a wise prediction," he says.

South Korea, which currently chairs the G20 group, hopes to convince its partners to approve the draft at the next summit of the organization, to be held in November in Seoul, says the author of the article.

The Nikkei closed up 0.52% Friday, and closed the week on a 4% gain, its largest weekly increase in seven months.

The Nikkei index closed at 9585.32 points and the broader TOPIX, took 0.02% to 861.21 points.

Japanese stocks have benefited from renewed investor confidence, new optimism for the resumption of the U.S. economy and the euro area.

The courses have been particularly supported by the exporters, thus earning the title Canon 1.02% to 3,480 yen on expectations of a tripling of operating income to about 182 billion yen (1.62 billion euros) .

The title however Inpex has weighed on prices, registering losses of up to 14% on the session to finally close down 12.82% after announcing an equity issue of 6.7 billion dollars threatening to dilute the value of shares already issued more than 50%.