Hot Economic News Releases

ABN Amro, nationalized by the Netherlands at the height of the crisis, said Thursday that most of the charges related to the integration of Fortis Bank Nederland was behind her while reporting a half year loss of nearly one billion euros.

The bank warned in May it expected to massive losses for the first half of the year due to a very high volume of loads.

It launched in June a new warning, explaining that its losses would be higher still, because of additional charges that Fortis would go for legal reasons.

On Thursday, the number one Dutch asset management and retail banking from third countries, has not yielded much information on the reasons for these provisions, but said they were "connected with international activities conducted in the past. "

The state has spent more than 26 billion euros to buy ABN Amro and support, making this rescue one of the most expensive in the world.Its managing director Gerrit Zalm said it was unlikely that the taxpayer comes one day even.

The owner of the bank said on Thursday he expected that the integration of schools is finalized by the end of 2012 and the government should find a way out for the group between 2013 and 2015.

The CFO Jan van Rutte meanwhile estimated that the costs of integration were mostly gone.The operation, however, should lead the bank to pass a new charge of 400 million euros in the second half.

Current profit stood at 325 million euros during the first half, partly due to higher net income from interest, while the impairment of assets decreased by more than half.

ABN Amro, however, reported a net loss of 968 million euros, including a charge of integration of 481 million euros and 812 million loss on assets sold to Deutsche Bank under any injunctions European competition authorities.

She also had to spend 265 million euros in additional legal expenses.

List of key values to follow Monday on Wall Street.

CAMPBELL SOUP *

The group is considering a power supply of 1.5 billion pounds (2.3 billion dollars) on the activities of Britain's United Biscuits Cookies, reported the Sunday Times.

The U.S. group is not interested in the industry "snacks" of United Biscuits bought in 2006 by Blackstone and PAI Partners and that they intend to sell, according to information published by Reuters last month.

Closing price: 36.64 dollars.

* HEWLETT-PACKARD

* 3PAR

* DELL

Hewlett-Packard said Monday it proposed to acquire the data storage company 3PAR priced at $ 24 per share in cash, competing with the offer made last week by rival Dell.

The proposed HP is 33% larger supply of Dell, which accounted for at the time of its announcement a premium of 87% over the course of 3PAR.

The action of 3PAR blazing 37% in pre-market trade after the announcement of the offer from HP.The action of the computer group yielded 1.0%, however.

Closing Speaker: U.S. $ 39.85

Closing 3PAR: U.S. $ 18.04

Closing Dell: 12.07 dollars

* AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP

The U.S. Federal Reserve plans to reduce approximately 3.6 billion dollars (2.8 billion) credit line open to the insurer, which illustrates the growing confidence of the authorities in the group's ability to do without public support, Bloomberg reported, quoting an informed source project.

In addition, ILFC, the aircraft leasing subsidiary of the group, has paid nearly four billion dollars by the Fed after raising capital from private investors, officials said Sunday close to the matter.

Closing price: 35.17 dollars.

* 3M

The U.S. industrial conglomerate could spend about two billion dollars (1.6 billion) on acquisitions this year, twice more than its previous estimate, said Monday its chief executive in an interview with Reuters.

Closing price: U.S. $ 80.66

* AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS

The share of industrial gases group could grow by 20% within a year if its offer AIRG fails or if it ends at a price less than $ 70, says Barron's in its latest edition.

The offer values currently Airgas to 63.50 dollars per share.

Closing price: 75.01 dollars.

* WASHINGTON POST

After declining in recent weeks, triggered by concerns raised by its Kaplan education subsidiary, the title is outrageously cheap, says Barron's.

Closing price: 347.68 dollars.

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.

The oil has closed lower Wednesday on the physical market in New York after the publication of the minutes of the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Federal Reserve.

The text of the Fed shows that its members say they have to be ready to take further measures to support the economy if the climate deteriorates.

The contract on August U.S. light crude ended on a down 11 cents, or 0.14%, to 77.04 dollars a barrel.

The NYSE opened up but on a cautious note Friday after the release of monthly statistics of the labor market in the United States, which rekindled fears of a slowdown in economic recovery.

A few minutes after the start of trading, the Dow Jones gained 0.27% to 9759.21 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 index 0.44% to 1,031.86 and the Nasdaq Composite 0.34% at 2108.48.

The U.S. economy has destroyed 125,000 non-agricultural jobs in June, according to Labor Department statistics, a figure slightly higher than expected.This is the first time since the beginning of the year that the U.S. economy is destroying jobs.

Among the values sought in early trading, the "biotech" Biogen and Allergan earn more than 6% and 8% respectively after news reports that Sanofi-Aventis is preparing a major acquisition in the United States.