The head of the White House and leaders of seven other industrialized countries, meeting in the presidential retreat in Maryland, the heart of the Catoctin Mountains, sought to reassure financial markets face difficulties of Spanish banks and the risk that Greece leave the euro zone. 

"We are all determined to ensure that growth and stability and fiscal consolidation, are part of a package of measures to ensure the prosperity of our citizens, we all want, "said Barack Obama during the resumption of talks on Saturday morning.

After meeting with U.S. President, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that progress had been made on how to address the debt crisis and ; rising oil prices, the two main threats to the global economy.

David Cameron said he had found among his G8 counterparts "a growing sense of urgency on action" to exit the eurozone crisis. 

"Contingency plans must be implemented to strengthen banks, improve governance and strengthen the firewall devices – all these things shall be implemented quickly in order to any eventuality, "he said.

But he added that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had "absolutely right" to demand that the countries of the euro area take the necessary steps to reduce their deficits.

On Friday, setting the tone of the summit, Obama had matched the proposed Francois Hollande supports incentives to growth facing austerity advocat ; born by German Chancellor that appeared isolated. 

"IMPERATIVE TO CREATE JOBS AND GROWTH"

The U.S. president has agreed with his French counterpart on the fact that the fight against the crisis in the euro area is "an issue of extraordinary importance, not only for Europeans but also for the global economy ".

He called for "a responsible approach that is coupled with a strong growth agenda".

Angela Merkel advocates instead a strong fiscal discipline to reduce the debt level. Its isolation is even greater than the draft final communique of the G8, seen by Reuters, plans to emphasize "the need to create growth and jobs".

"Germany is almost completely isolated," said Domenico Lombardi, former head of the International Monetary Fund. "(…) It is now clear that Greece has become a crisis systemic, "he added.

G8 leaders also discussed the Iranian nuclear Saturday.

Barack Obama said Friday that all participants remained committed to an approach combining sanctions, pressures and diplomatic talks with Tehran. 

"We are all involved here with a determination to continue the approach of sanctions and pressures combined with diplomatic discussions," he told reporters.

"And our hope is that we can address this issue in a peaceful manner that respects the sovereignty and rights of Iran within the international community, but also recognizes its responsibility s ".

Since late March, the direction of investments of the bank "has had significant market losses in its credit portfolio synthetic," said the company in a document submitted quarterly to the stock market authority, the SEC.

In the off-market transactions, JPMorgan fell by 5% to 38.67 dollars in its wake other financial stocks. 

The bank said that the gains also up for the loss of trading, which would reduce the "gap" at $ 800 million.

"That could cost up to $ 1 billion or more," said Jamie Dimon, CEO of the group, during a teleconference convened at the tope you where he apologized to analysts.

"ONE OF THE KINGS OF WALL STREET"

The loss of dollars might be less important than the reputation of the bank.

JPMorgan posted a total assets of 2,320 billion at the end of March with $ 190 billion of equity.

JPMorgan was previously considered a risk manager gifted, never having announced losses during the financial crisis. It was the bank strong enough to buy investment bank Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual Bank when they went bankrupt in 2008.

"Jamie has always been presented as one of the kings of Wall Street," said Nancy Bush, bank analyst experience. "I do not know how all this turned out so badly and so quickly given his knowledge and his risk aversion."

Jamie Dimon, called the mistakes "huge". He acknowledged that mistakes were particularly embarrassing in light of his public criticism of so-called "Volcker rule" to ban the proprietary trading at major banks.

He said he still believed in his arguments against the Volcker rule. The problem here at JPMorgan, he argues, for the performance of the hedging strategy.

The hedging strategy that failed was "inefficient, poorly supervised, poorly built and all that," said Jamie Dimon. "This violates our principles," he added.

The direction of investments is a department of the bank used for large transactions to cover this or that particular operation, such as loans to companies whose credit rating is speculative grade.

Sales of cement, concrete and asphalt decreased by double digit percentages in Europe and the net profit after minority interests stood at 10 million Swiss francs (8.32 million euros), far from the 41.2 million expected by analysts polled by Reuters.

Revenues increased 2.2% to 4.76 billion Swiss francs, compared with 4.718 billion consensus giving.

"The harsh winter has resulted in numerous decisions of sites in Western and Eastern Europe in February," said the second world cement in a statement. 

Cement producers, firms in a particularly energy intensive, face higher costs of fuel and electricity.

Holcim said it could offset the rising costs by raising prices, but Africa and the Middle East. As Lafarge, he observed that the costs of energy and transport seemed to stabilize.

European competitors Holcim, Lafarge and whose German HeidelbergCement, have warned that they would fall under their prices to offset rising energy costs. Holcim said it reverberate cost increases caused by inflation.

The Swiss group, which generates more than half of its turnover in emerging markets, expects increased demand for building materials in Asia, Latin America, Russia and Azerbaijan this year. It also provides an increase in demand in North America.

According lsa.fr, the market share of the distributor was down 1.7 percentage points, to 21%, against 22.7% during the same period last year .

"The two main signs of the Carrefour group are affected by this plunge: hypermarkets in mind, which fell 1.2 points to 11.4% market share while Carrefour Market supermarkets them lose 0.6 points to 7.9%, "the site that it is adding Leclerc, Système U and Intermarché who benefit most from the decline of the French leader.

Carrefour declined to comment.

The specialist services for conformity assessment and certification confirmed target for 2012 unless economic downturn, a "strong" growth in its turnover and its operational result ; rationally adjusted.

On January-March, it achieved a turnover of 868.3 million euros, showing organic growth of 8.6%, against 6.5% over the same period the last year. 

Changes in the scope of the group also contributed 1.2 points to growth in sales through acquisitions that represent a number of annual sales accumulated over 110 million euros on the basis of 2011.

"The group is in advanced stage of negotiation on other acquisitions that should be finalized during the year," he says in a statement.

The quarterly sales also includes a positive impact of exchange rate fluctuations of 2.2%, reflecting the appreciation of the U.S. and Australia and the Chinese yuan.

"The outlook for 2012 are well oriented and well, except further deterioration of the economy compared to current projections, the group should experience a strong growth of its turnover (…) And adjusted operating profit, in line with the strategic plan objectives BV2015, "said in a statement the CEO, Didier Michaud-Daniel ….. The plan

…. growth of 9% to 12% on average per year in sales at constant exchange rates, generated e for third through external growth, and improved operating margin of 100 to 150 basis points in 2015 compared to 2011

.. ……. In exchange, the action Bureau Veritas finished Thursday at 68.80 euros, valuing the company at 7.5 billion euros. The stock has risen 21.4% since January 1 after falling 0.74% in 2011

.

"I support what is working on an initiative for growth in addition to agreements on budgetary discipline," he says in an interview published Monday by the German newspaper Die Welt.

Such an initiative would pass, in the short term, increased by an endowment from the European Investment Bank (EIB), a more efficient use of structural funds of the European Union and bonds dedicated to finance infrastructure projects, says Michel Barnier. 

According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the European Union is working on a growth plan to inject $ 200 billion of investments in sectors such as infrastructure, clean energy and high technology.

The idea of ​​complementing the "fiscal pact" signed last year by a panel of growth support the political debate in Europe for several weeks, many voices emphasizing the risk of austerity encourage a relapse into recession in countries weakened by the crisis. 

At the end of last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also expressed support for capacity building of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and use more flexible infrastructure fund of the European Union to support growth.

President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi said last week that the eurozone needed a "Growth Pact".

Francois Hollande, the Socialist candidate for the French presidential election, has placed top priority in the renegotiation of the Treaty on European budgetary discipline signed in March by 25 of the 27 EU countries to include a section on "growth", an initiative criticized right. 

The German government said Friday that issues related to growth and employment in Europe would play a central role at a summit of heads of state and government in late June.

According to Michel Barnier, a further liberalization of the internal market of the European Union could support the growth over the medium term.

"In the long run, I would like the establishment of a European industrial policy in strategic areas so that we redevenions a manufacturing center and not mere consumers of Chinese and American."

The Spanish unemployment rate, one of the highest in the world, jumped to 24% in the first quarter, its highest level since the early 1990s. Retail sales fell for their part, for the 21st consecutive month, as the country is experiencing its second recession in three years.

"The numbers are terrible for everyone and terrible for the government (…) Spain is in a crisis of immense proportions," said the Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Garcia -Margallo, during a radio interview.

The unemployment rate in Spain was 22.9% in the last quarter of 2011. Half of young people are unemployed and the numbers are unlikely to improve anytime soon, while fiscal savings of some 42 billion euros this year while undermining hope for growth for the country.

Standard & Poor's lowered the rating Thursday of the Spanish sovereign debt to "A" to "BBB +" with negative implications, citing the risk of fiscal slippages may be more important than expected.

The rating agency considers particularly likely that Madrid has to provide support to its banking sector.

Lowering S & P sovereign rating instead of Spain at the same level as that of Italy, to "adequate capacity to pay" – is a few notches away from the class speculative. From Fitch and Moody's, Spain has however always a "strong capacity to pay".

BANKS SICK

Friday morning at the Madrid Stock Exchange, banking stocks fell 3.38% while the risk premium of Spanish debt, measured by the yield spread between government bonds ; ten years, has jumped 10 basis points to 434 points.

"This is a very difficult situation. I do not think banks are trapped, but we need the government to quickly find out how they intend to do it for them, "said Gilles Moec, economist for Deutsche Bank ..

……. Spanish banks may require more public funds, said in the morning, the Secretary of State for Fernando Jimenez Latorre economy, while excluding the use of EU funds

. The Spanish government also plans to create a structure defeasance for banks' toxic real estate assets, three rounds of cleaning and consolidation of the country's financial sector was not enough to reassure investors of its soundness. 

Madrid has already come to the aid of several banks devastated by the bursting of the housing bubble in 2008 and investors feared, given the current economic contraction, a new wave of de defects credit which further weaken the country's financial sector.

The contraction of the economy also means that Spain is unlikely to achieve its fiscal targets this year despite a severe austerity.

While in Europe are increasing calls for measures to support growth, the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy reiterated its willingness to adhere to fiscal consolidation planned for the country. 

His government expects that the reforms of labor market flexibility adopted in the first quarter produce results next year. For now, many companies have primarily benefited the new rules to lay off more.

Demand for models such as the large sedan Audi A6 or 4×4 Volkswagen Tiguan in countries like the U.S. or Russia has offset weak sales in Western Europe and the cost of major plan committed investment to increase capacity of the German group.

Its operating profit rose by 10% in the first quarter to 3.21 billion euros, while analysts on average expected a decline of almost 9% to 2 , 7 billion. 

The turnover, however, has jumped more than 25% to EUR 47.3 billion, reflects the integration of truck maker MAN, Volkswagen capital which is mounted near 74% a few days ago after taking control in November.

At the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the action Volkswagen gained 6.81% to 134.80 euros by 2:20 p.m., showing by far the largest increase of the DAX index, which then yielded 0.31%, while the European sector index of the automobile progressed from 1.58%.

No. 1 worldwide in 2016?

Manufacturers depend heavily on the European market currently suffering from declining margins as a result of the price war initiated in an attempt to stem the decline in sales against a backdrop of economic slump , fiscal austerity and wage restraint. 

PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe's number two industry, and Renault, and have reported this week from a drop in sales of 7% and 8.6% respectively, which reflect you exposure to markets in southern Europe.

Volkswagen, he enjoys a geographical diversification committed earlier: counting on the continued development of its activities in Asia, the United States, Latin America and Russia, he hopes to beat this year's record sales recorded last year with 8.3 million vehicles.

"The results are extraordinary," said Franz Schwope, analyst at NordLB in Hanover. "It's time to revise upwards their long-term goals."

The group reiterated its forecast for 2012 operating earnings for the same level as in 2011, 11.3 billion euros, an increase of its turnover Business, emerged last year to 159.3 billion.

Group sales rose 9.6% in the first quarter to 2.16 million vehicles, a figure unprecedented in three months.

Volkswagen wants to become by 2018 the global industry, with a target of 10 million vehicles, while becoming more profitable. For Franz Schwope, this dual objective could be achieved by 2016.

The chief executive of VW, Martin Winterkorn, said in the earnings release that the group plans to launch this year over 40 new models or new versions of existing models .

The group also intends to invest about 15 billion euros by 2016 to modernize its plants.

The Spanish Treasury has now covered half of its funding program for the year, benefiting from the liquidity pumped into the financial system by the European Central Bank (ECB) at its two refinancing long-term ("LTRO") in December and February. 

The Spanish Treasury has auctioned 1.12 billion euros of debt in two years and 1.42 billion euros of debt in ten years to increase coverage ratios, respectively, 3.3 and 2.4 against 2.0 and 2.2 at previous auctions of this type.

Performance of paper came out two years down to 3.463% against 3.495% at an auction in October, and that of ten years up to 5.743% against 5.403% in January.

European stock markets as the single currency have reduced their earnings a few minutes after the results of the auction, investors holding these mixed before returning color to the result of French a debt issue in line with expectations. 

"The coverage ratios for both the two years since the decade are quite good, but yields are clearly higher," explains Nick Stamenkovic, bond strategist for Ria Capital Markets.

"The real problem of Spain remains a serious budget situation and growth. Until there are signs that the government is currently implementing its program of consolidation medium-term budget, and signs of life in the Spanish economy, investors will worry the path of the debt to GDP (gross domestic product) in the medium term ", says he.

BREATHLESSNESS

Secondary market, the Spanish bond yields climbed to ten years around 5.88% against 5.79% before the auction. It was back above 6% Monday, as investors worried the country's budget problems.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Wednesday to expect that Spain lacks its deficit targets set under the supervision of the European Union in 2012 and 2013. Impaired loans of Spanish banks have also reached in February to their highest level since October 1994, illustrating the fragility of the country's financial sector.

Spanish banks, in fact excluded from the primary bond market because of their toxic real estate assets, used a large share of loans from the ECB to buy sovereign debt issued by Madrid.

Meanwhile, foreign investors increasingly shun the Spanish debt: investors residing outside the country have reduced their holdings of Spanish sovereign debt to 42% in February, against 50 % two months earlier. 

With half of its funding program in 2012 already covered the Spanish Treasury can now afford to issue debt at a slower pace if its costs borrowing remain high.

"The Treasury can afford to slow down (…) but Spain remains battered and locked in a negative feedback loop," said Jo Tomkins, strategist for 4Cast .

"The domestic banks have undoubtedly played a key role in the success of today's program, but we found increasing signs of slowing post-LTRO, and c is something that should be monitored carefully in the weeks and months ahead. "

* However, banking stocks suffer from persistent market fears about the financial position of the peripheral countries of the euro area, the performance of Spanish debt in ten years being spent at above 6% for the first time since the start of the year.

BNP PARIBAS leaves 3.55%, largest drop in the CAC 40, followed by Crédit Agricole (-3.28%) and SOCIETE GENERALE (-2.5%). The index Stoxx European banking yields 0.93%. ACC off, DEXIA (-11.54%) shows the largest decrease of the SBF 120 and Natixis were down 2.43%.

In addition, Citigroup cut its price targets on several French banking stocks.

* ENERGY SECTOR's is up at European level (+1.6%) while VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS jumped 18.49%, two Chinese groups planning to launch a takeover offer for the Danish manufacturer wind turbine, the newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Technip (3.83%) signed the largest increase in the CAC 40, MAUREL ET PROM was up 2.76%, 2.55% of CGG VERITAS and TOTAL of 1.96%.

GDF SUEZ wins 3.06%. The group announced the acquisition of 30% International Power (0.73%) that did not already own for 6.8 billion pounds (8.3 billion euros). He announced in the wake that it was within its target of recurring net profit CEOs for 2012 at between 3.7 and 4.2 billion euros, against 3.5 to 4 billion previously.

* DOLLAR VALUES are oriented correctly, the euro had hit a two-month low against the greenback, investors reducing their exposure to the euro area. EADS rose 2.7%, 1.29% and STMICROELECTRONICS ZODIAC AEROSPACE of 3.42% (largest increase in the SBF 120).

* Illustrating the continuing investor concerns for the situation in Europe, defensive stocks are sought. Air Liquide wins 1.96%, 1.5% or Pernod Ricard ESSILOR 1.38%.

* RENAUL PSA and win respectively 1.99% and 1.34%. According to trade publication The Letter VN Auto K7, orders for new cars in France saw their slow decline in March.

* INTERNATIONAL GECI remains suspended until Tuesday. The aerospace engineering company said it had been informed of the lapse of a memorandum of agreement to finance the project of French aircraft Skylander, and said it was exploring new ways of financing.

The project Skylander is grossly under-funded in its current setup and would require tens of millions of euros of additional investment, according to an expert report that Reuters was able to consult.