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The property prices fell in 43 of the 70 cities monitored by the Institute of Chinese statistics. Only three cities have recorded an increase. Prices remained stable in the remaining cities.

The measures taken by Beijing to prevent the bursting of a housing bubble in China are bearing fruit. Average prices real estate in April continued their downward trend for the seventh consecutive month, according to figures reported Friday by the government. Over a month, prices of new homes fell in 43 cities and towns of 70, reported the National Bureau of Statistics.

Prices remained stable in 24 others and increased in three cities. The decline had affected 46 cities in March. The building is a key sector of the Chinese economy alone generates about 10% of GDP, and much more if one takes into account the production of steel and concrete upstream.  

After reaching highs that have raised fears the Government the bursting of a housing bubble, the housing market began to return in the fall, but Beijing has so far refused to lift restrictions put in place to acquisition of homes by individuals for fear of boosting speculation.

"We must firmly tighten control of the real estate market", commented Friday even in the Chinese press Zhang Xiaohong, a senior Ministry of Housing.

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Global growth slows and the risk of bankruptcy increases, said Wednesday the French credit insurer Euler Hermes when publishing its first quarter results.

Euler Hermes, which insures companies against the risk of default, has warned its customers that the year 2012 would be difficult.

"Global growth is slowing and corporate bankruptcies are generally increasing," he warns, saying it wants to help its customers meet "the challenges ahead".

"According to Euler Hermes forecasts, 2012 will be a year of consolidation rather than pronounced recovery", explains the group, which estimates that the GDP of the euro area is expected to decline 0.3%. 

"The slowdown in global demand will impact emerging countries, whose growth will be weaker than in recent years," he said, adding that global growth deceleration rer of 2.9% to 2.6% in 2012.

The credit insurer, a subsidiary of Germany's Allianz, also confirmed a slight increase of 3.6%, operating profit in the first quarter to 105.9 million euros with a combined ratio (the key indicator of profitability) of 73.9% against 75.0% during the first three months of 2011.

The net result is however down by 11.9% to 66.4 million due to higher tax expense. 

Euler Hermes had exceptionally on Monday at the request of the Market Authority (AMF) its major first-quarter results, in order to inform its minority shareholders Tuesday before publication of results Allianz, said a spokesman told Reuters.

Panasonic said Friday forecast a rebound in operating profit in the current year, thanks to reduced costs and reduced losses its television division.

The consumer electronics group has reported a net loss of 772.2 billion unprecedented yen (7.5 billion euros) in fiscal 2011/2012 ended 31 March .

It is due mainly to restructuring charges, related mainly to the elimination of 17,000 jobs, as well as a provision on subsidiary Sanyo Electric.

Panasonic projects an operating profit of 260 billion yen in fiscal 2012/2013, while the Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S provides 241.5 billion yen. 

Panasonic, which like its counterparts Sharp and Sony suffers from competition from South Korea's Samsung and a declining demand for plasma displays, does not see its TV division back in the green during year 2012/2013.

The maker of Viera televisions estimated that sales of flat screen TV will fall to 15.5 million units during the current year against 17.5 million in fiscal year pre yield.

The action Panasonic ended down 1.55% at 570 yen before the publication of results. She has sold more than 12% since the beginning of the year, while the Nikkei was up 5.9% at the same time, investors fearing further losses of the TV division.

Sony has also released Thursday an annual net loss record over the 2011-2012 fiscal year and hopes to revive an operating profit of the current year by halving its losses in TVs.

The idea put forward by the Socialist candidate is gaining ground. Mario Draghi, head of the ECB, also argues in favor of a pact to support the activity. But not necessarily with the same means … The PS candidate for president, Francois Hollande.

Just days after receiving the approval of several economists, François Hollande, the Socialist candidate for French Presidential Wednesday received unexpected European support in its application for a Growth Pact, and presented in the wake of his runways renegotiation of the treaty European budget.

"The day after the election, if I have received a mandate, I will address a memorandum to heads of state on the renegotiation of the Treaty" on European public finance, said Francois Hollande, given the polls largely winning the second round the presidential election to be held on May 6, against the incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy.  

This treaty was signed in March after it was negotiated under the leadership of Angela Merkel torque-Nicolas Sarkozy. This is a text of strict budgetary discipline, which aims to end the debt crisis in the eurozone. The Socialist candidate, in the lead Sunday in the first round of the presidential election with 28.63% ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy (27.18%), pleads for weeks for a renegotiation of the text, in order to add a growth program .

"The serious budget yes, austerity in life, not," insists the Socialist candidate. The good surprise for Francois Hollande came Wednesday in Brussels. In front of MEPs, the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Italy's Mario Draghi, has admitted that Europe was not sufficient for growth. "We have a budget pact (…), we must go back and make a pact for growth," he said.  

"Things are well advanced (…) ideas cheminent and the French vote is probably much," said Francois Hollande in Paris, during a press conference. And he detailed his proposals: "creation of eurobonds (European bonds, note), not to pool the debts but to finance industrial projects of infrastructure"; "liberate more funding opportunities for the European Investment Bank" (EIB), "creation of a tax on financial transactions"; mobilization "remnants of European structural funds not used today to support projects".

But it will convince the German chancellor, with whom he sees the "firm but friendly discussions". "Is that it may lead to clash? We are not there to create conflict, but not to cover different interpretations or dissimilar positions," he judged. Angela Merkel has kept his distance Wednesday with Francois Hollande, while recognizing the need to stimulate growth.

"We need growth and growth form of sustainable initiatives, not just economic programs – which still dig the debt – but growth, as Mario Draghi said today, as structural reforms, "she said. However, the leader of the euro zone, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, called in turn for a "growth strategy" for restarting the European economy.  

Francois Hollande was snubbed for weeks by conservative European leaders, Angela Merkel in the lead, who refused to receive it before the election because of his opposition to the treaty budget. President Nicolas Sarkozy warned since the beginning of the campaign against his opponent's economic program, he considers wasteful and he says it could trigger a wave of market speculation.

Francois Hollande "is a serious left, there will be fiscal responsibility, we will reduce the state deficit and we will do in 2013, passing below 3%" of gross domestic product (GDP), Pierre Moscovici said Wednesday, his campaign manager.

Bonduelle wants to reduce the share of its business in France and, overall, in Western Europe where consumption remains sluggish, and grow in North America and Eastern Europe where the group recently conducted a series of acquisitions.

In an interview with Reuters, the chairman of the group specialized in canned and frozen vegetables believes that France could well be less than 20% of its sales in five years , against 36% today.

The group's strategy is to "dilute France and Europe as a whole, for reasons of profitability but also risks," he says. 

Bonduelle generated an operating margin of just 2.2% in the EU in the first half of fiscal 2011-2012, while it reached 12.9% in the rest the world.

"Two thirds of sales account for only one third of our profitability and vice versa. There is no need for great strategist will tell rather outside Europe, "notes Christophe Bonduelle

. This profitability gap, found long, has also prompted the group, created in 1853 to engage in acquisitions outside the European Uni ; enemies

. In March, Bonduelle has acquired three U.S. processing plants and a fitness frozen vegetables belonging to the group Allens American as well as industrial and commercial assets of the cooperative group in Russia Cecab FINANCING DEBT

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For these acquisitions, the group chose to go into debt rather than carry out a capital increase. 

According to the president, "the magnitude" of the group's net debt at the end of the 2011-2012 fiscal year and should be at 591 million euros, as provided sees analysts, while at the end of 2010-2011 it totaled 492 million euros.

These acquisitions will allow the group turnover exceeding 1.8 billion over the 2011-2012 fiscal year, ended June 30, against 1.7 billion euros a year earlier.

"We'll pass the milestone of two billion euros over the 2012-2013" provides Christophe Bonduelle.

Allens plants will bring nearly 130 million euros in turnover for the year 2012-2013, an amount which will increase to 170-180 million in the next three years. 

"A three-year horizon, North America will represent about 500 million euros in revenue" while on the year to June 2011, sales in this area totaled $ 284 million.

The acquisitions made in Russia will have an "extremely limited impact" on the 2011-2012 fiscal year but in 2012-2013 are expected to add revenues of the order of ten million euros.

"But this operation we should primarily relate to profitability as we go" Russify "a larger portion of our goodwill out there".

Around 10:30, the action Bonduelle yielded 1.36% to 72.4 euros (-1.36%) showing a market capitalization of 579.20 million. It grew by 15.8% since the beginning of the year.

Wall Street closed lower Thursday hit a session, investors were discouraged by some economic indicators and various new companies rather bad.

The Dow Jones sells 68.65 points (0.53%) to 12,964.10. The S & P 500 drops 8.22 points (0.59%) to 1,376.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 23.89 points (0.79%) to 3,007.56.

Clearances have emerged from the early trading, after Citi analysts had said it was likely that Moody's puts Aaa rating of France under surveillance in order to a possible downgrade by fall.

This followed an auction of Spanish debt considered mixed.

In Paris, a French official source considered unfounded rumors of a deterioration of the French sovereign rating.

The better than expected results from Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and eBay had a time slowed the decline in the market but all attempts to do back in Green had faced in new sales and the Dow has lost one time 1%. 

The bad news given by Qualcomm and the day before the sharp decline of Stanley Black & Decker, over 7% on a quarterly profit below expectations have definitely directed the rating red.

Regarding the results of companies, 105 companies on the S & P 500 that have published their accounts so far, 82% beat consensus as the latest Thomson Reuters data.

Indicators, less weekly jobless claims decreased by 2.000 last week in the U.S., less than expected, while the index of manufacturing conditions in the Philadelphia Federal Reserve was signed in April its first decline in five months in the wake of a fall in new orders at their lowest level since September.

Home sales in the former fell by 2.6% in March to an annualized pace of 4.48 million, while the index of leading indicators, which prefigures the evolution economic activity in the United States, emerged up 0.3% in March to 95.7, its highest level since June 2008. 

Bank of America reported Thursday a better than expected in the first quarter, reflecting improved credit quality and a rebound in activity in financial markets.

Action, however, lost 1.7% to 8.77 dollars.

Morgan Stanley on Thursday posted quarterly results supported by a strong increase in trading activities and signs of improvement in asset management.

The action took 2.3% to 18.07 dollars.

The financial index yielded 0.45%.

EBay jumped 13.23%. The online auction site reported Wednesday a larger increase than expected in its turnover and its quarterly results, due to the growth of its activity s Marketplace and PayPal.

Human Genome has rocketed by over 97% and biotech in general prevented a bigger loss in the Nasdaq. The biotech said Thursday it had rejected an unsolicited offer of his longtime partner GlaxoSmithKline that the values ​​around 2.6 billion (2 billion).

ASML on Wednesday issued an earnings slightly better than expected first quarter and anticipates a stable revenue in the third quarter, the level of the first half.

The world leader in engraving machines semiconductor anticipates a turnover of 1.2 billion euros in the second quarter after 1.25 billion in the first quarter. Reuters gave the sales of 1.209 billion in the first quarter.

The Dutch group has also reported net earnings of 282 million euros, compared to consensus building on 278 million.

The value of its order backlog was 865 million euros in the first quarter but he finds it difficult to predict what will be the second quarter as orders received are fewer but larger magnitude.

The number of jobs créésa been well below expectations in March in the U.S., which suggests that the Fed has leeway for further monetary easing, although the unemployment rate fell to a three-year low of 8.2%.

The number of jobs créésa was 120,000 in March, reported the Labor Department Friday, the lowest since October 2011.

Economists polled by Reuters expected a number of 203,000 and an unchanged unemployment rate of 8.3%. 

The index futures on Wall Street fell sharply in reaction to this statistic, as the dollar against the euro and the yen, while the bond market has erased its losses and has trended upward.

The slower employment growth likely reflects an attenuation of the stimulus that had resulted from an unusually mild winter. Job creation in January and February were revised and show just 4,000 new jobs more than the first estimate.

The decline in the unemployment rate attests it a contraction of the activated population. The survey made from separate households, from which is calculated the unemployment rate, also shows a decline in employment.

The slow recovery of the difficult job market is a concern for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who leaves the possibility to intervene again to stimulate the economy if the unemployment rate ; mage continues to remain too high.

However, members of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Federal Reserve have suggested that the need for new measures to support the American economy became less feel the light of improved economic conditions in the United States, according to the minutes of the March meeting of the Fed released this week.

The private sector has received 121.000 new jobs in March, while the public sector lost 1,000.

The industry has experienced one month of new dynamic in employment, 37,000 were created especially for the performance of the car after 31,000 in February.

However, construction lost 7,000 jobs, while in services, employment rose in health in particular. The interim has lost 7,500 jobs, after having won 54,900 in February.

Despite the low number of jobs created, a bad point for President Barack Obama in the context of the November elections, the average hourly earnings rose five cents per month, while the workweek fell to 34.5 hours against 34.6 hours in February.

The Minister of Economy Baroin table on a green light from the International Energy Agency that would allow States to tap into their strategic reserves to lower the price of gasoline. But the measure does not have unanimous support in France and abroad. .

Faced with soaring gasoline prices, which reached the symbolic threshold of two euros per liter at two stations in Paris, and became an issue in the election campaign, the government grows more and more use of the solution strategic reserves.

After the announcement Wednesday by the Energy Minister, Eric Besson, France was "favorable" to a proposal to the United States and Britain, the Minister of Economy, Baroin, who posted Thursday its confidence in the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEA) gives the green light to the measure.

"It is reasonable to expect," said Mr. Baroin on a Europe without advance date. "It depends on the agency, it does not do it alone." France had in early October of 17 million tons of crude oil and petroleum products in its strategic stocks, representing 98.5 days of consumption, more than its international obligations (90 days). But we must remember that, theoretically, the strategic petroleum reserve should be used only in times of international crisis. Moreover, they do not consist of refined products available for immediate consumption. The impact on gasoline prices would be limited as it was last June, when the IEA decided to make available 60 million barrels of crude from the reserves of its members to offset losses production resulting from the crisis in Libya.

Limited effectiveness

The United States had provided 30 million barrels against 3.2 million for France, 2% of its strategic reserves. The operation was allowed to drop the price of a barrel of crude from 115 to 108 dollars. A month later, he was nevertheless returned to 116 dollars. During this lull, the price of gasoline was also temporarily relaxed.

Markets, the prospect of using these stockpiles was depressing prices in electronic trading. The barrel of "light sweet crude" (WTI) crude for May delivery lost 15 cents to 105.26 dollars on Thursday morning, while Brent North Sea crude for May delivery gave up 16 cents to 124 dollars.

In the French political debate, the measure is questioned for its electoral motives. "This can only be a really very short term, just days, weeks maybe. This can be useful at election time," said Francois Bayrou has, Thursday morning on Canal +. "But in the long run, truth obliges us to say that gasoline prices continue to rise because of oil, there are less and is more expensive to extract," he stressed the candidate's modem.

The question is whether the 28 IEA members for their support. Berlin Wednesday and felt that there was no reason to intervene. A spokesman for the Ministry of Economy had specified that draw on reserves was part of a German law, which strictly regulates such an approach, and the particular conditions in a physical shortage. But "there is no physical shortage," she had said.

In addition, other solutions exist. The Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, has once again assured that his country "will act to lower the high oil prices", in an article published Thursday by the Financial Times. The world's largest exporter, "wants to see a price (of oil) lower (…) a reasonable price that does not impact the global economic recovery," Mr. Naimi said, adding that high oil prices were bad for everyone, developed, emerging, or poor producers.

Economic growth of the G20 countries slowed to 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2011, after +0.9% in the third, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the OECD .

Over the whole of 2011, growth stood at 2.8% in the 20 largest world economies, a marked slowdown compared to 2010 (5.0%).

These figures mask differences: the U.S., growth was 0.7% in the fourth quarter (+0.5% in the third), it increased significantly in India and Indonesia sia, and it slowed to 2.0% in China (2.3% in the third).

In Japan, growth was down 0.2% after a strong rebound (+1.7%) in the third quarter. 

In the EU, as in the euro area, GDP fell 0.3% in the fourth quarter, the first decline since the second quarter of 2009, after 0.3 % and 0.1% in the third quarter.