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The Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche warned Wednesday that he would not fall under its offer of $ 6.8 billion (5.18 billion euros) on the Illumina American and he will not extend the period of acceptance thereof.
Its current proposal, $ 51 per share Illumina, can not be improved without penalizing shareholders of Roche, said the group, which should give up its offensive.
The offer expires Friday, Roche said not wanting to prolong it, expressing regret the refusal of the Board to engage in constructive dialogue
Illumina sequencing of genes specialist, self-proclaimed "Apple genomics", for its part has rejected offers of Roche and called its shareholder do the same.
Consulted Wednesday during a general meeting, a majority of them have also shunned.
"Roche will not be affected if it sends a signal showing that it is ready to give up these offers," said Navid Malik of Cenkos Securities.
The acquisition of Illumina would have allowed the Swiss group, world leader in therapies against cancer to benefit from its expertise in sequencing of genes play a role forefront of personalized treatments, which represent the future of the pharmaceutical industry.
Roche did not give up its ambitions for external growth.
"Roche will continue to examine all options and opportunities to further develop its business portfolio to expand its leading position in diagnostics," said Severin Schwan, director General of the Basel group, in a statement.
At their general meeting, shareholders of Illumina supported the four nominees to fill board seats, while rejecting a proposal from Roche to bring to 11 the number of directors with the objective to take a majority.
The prospect of a failure of Roche has not been punished by investors, its title having closed up 0.99%, unlike the Illumina who lost in the third me time to 4.10% to 42.20 dollars.
After a record year 2011, property transactions are spread downwards, credit dries up and prices began to decline. In short, all signs of a turnaround in the market are there. The question is what will be its magnitude. . The reasons for the sales record in 2011
The real estate prices continued to rise last year but this has not prevented sales of existing homes to beat their time record. According to the report released Thursday by the notaries of France, some 858,200 transactions were recorded last year, up 9% from 2010. In fact, only sales in the Province recorded a record with a jump of 14% over one year. The Ile de France, however, suffers a fall of 8%. This exceptional performance overall is therefore explained in part by the boom in sales of second homes. And would therefore be the consequence of the change in the taxation on real estate gains, which came into force in February. Indeed, we see a surge in transactions in the Tarn (31%), Correze (28%) and in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques (24%). Add to this the prospect of stopping interest loan in the former in late 2011 that prompted first-time buyers to anticipate an acquisition. Nearly 300,000 homes have indeed been funded in part by this system in 2011.
The reversal observed in early 2012
Such dynamics do not observe this year. The reasons are promoted in 2011 – the planned abolition of tax incentives – rather play against the market. Bazaille Pierre, president of the property market notaries, table and a decline in transactions from 15 to 20% in 2012, representing a range of 700 to 740,000. A reversal has already begun and abruptly, as evidenced by the unprecedented collapse of home loans. According to the Bank of France, the amount of home loans granted in February was the lowest in 32 months, falling by 41% compared to January and by 49% compared to February 2011. And this trend continued in March according to the Housing Credit Monitoring that evokes a fall in the amounts awarded by 36% over the first quarter, compared to the same period last year.
"The decline is alarming. Such a sharp decline was not foreseen, is concerned Mouillard Michel, professor of economics at University of Paris X Nanterre in charge of this observatory. In 2011, production reached 160 credit billion. This year it should rise to 120 billion, or slightly less. " And to emphasize "a drop of this magnitude is unprecedented," even during the 2009 crisis. Ditto when property prices had soared between 1989 and 1992: the decline in home loans that result had reached only 15 to 18%.
For him it is a sign that "everything is going to crash, even on the market of large cities." A pessimism that also feeds on the situation in the nine, the number of housing starts collapsed since the beginning of the year. "We have never seen a level of construction as low since 1986" says he. Notaries, themselves, are less alarmist. They believe that Paris and the vibrant cities of province, like Nice, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Montpellier, lower volumes may be limited to around 5%.
The reasons for the reversal
The tax reasons – the end of PTZ + in the old or the disappearance of Scellier in nine – are not the only explanation for the drop in home loans, and therefore transactions. The changing attitude of banks also plays a role. "Besides being confontées to slower growth or even recession, European banks are facing new prudential rules and have a capital ratio more important," said Marc Touati, chief economist of the financial holding company Assya. Incentives to limit risks, they are much more selective in granting loans, imposing more restrictions on prospective borrowers (need input, etc..).
The market downturn also reflects the uncertain economy, the unemployment rate is rising and the prospect of higher taxes for 2012. Results for Nicolas Tarnaud, an expert in real estate, "we fail to commit more over time, we will rent. And first-time buyers are the first affected." Finally, the French expect the outcome of the presidential election.
In short, demand is sluggish, "depressed" for Michel Mouillard. "This is the first time we observed an important loosening of intentions to purchase real estate," said the academic. A recent survey of the observatory Housing Credit / CSA, only 4% of households say they want to buy property in the next six months, down 29% compared to 2009.
Finally, property prices are still at historically high levels. From 2000 to 2011, they more than doubled in France (117%), even more in Ile-de-France (+138%), and almost tripled in Paris (186%). While household incomes, these, only increased by 26% over the same period. Reflecting a shift, according to some, the existence of a housing bubble that can only end up deflating, or even explode.
What price decline in 2012?
The question is whether such a crash is possible. Notaries exclude the hypothesis and favor a simple soft landing. "2012 will be a year of correction and sobering price," sums up Peter Bazaille. For the full year, they expect a 5% decline in the most tense areas in terms of supply as Paris and some regional cities. The rest of the territory, they anticipate a decline "more or less pronounced", 5 to 10% depending on the area.
Marc Touati plans to share a scenario a bit rougher. "Whatever the outcome of the presidential election, the note of France may be degraded, he says. In this case, the rate of OAT (obligation akin to treasure) would increase by one point, and it would be the same for credit rate, which could rise to 6% or 7%. "In this case, Economist expects a decline of 10 to 15% of property prices
. For his part, Michel Mouillart refuses to talk down price. This does not prevent him from displaying his pessimism. "For now, the market collapses, with 20 to 30% less activity in 2012, and the problem is that n 'there is no prospect of a rebound. And we do not see how to get out of bottoming "
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The Austrian bank in difficulty Volksbanken, which the State is about to take a significant minority stake, said Thursday it lost 1.35 billion euros in 2011.
This result is at once the fact of past depreciation on its activities in Eastern Europe and losses on Greek sovereign debt and other bad debts .
Once the fourth largest bank in Austria, Volksbanken failed to European stress tests last year.
The anticipation of a heavy loss and the slow restructuring of the bank in February led the Austrian government to launch a rescue plan that will cost over a billion euros to the state and will mean for current shareholders by the loss of more than 70% of their assets.
In November, the bank said that its loss in 2011 would be higher by at least 10% in the range from 900 to 1,050 million euros given in October.
Taking into account the recapitalization of the bank, which must be approved at a general meeting called for April 26, 2011 the loss is reduced to ; 53.5 million euros, said in a statement Volksbanken.
After the bailout of the institution, the majority of the capital should remain held by regional banks, taking the state for its part ownership of more than 40%.
Vienna will therefore be entitled to appoint four members of the Supervisory Board of Volksbank. According to a financial source, including the Austrian government will bring Gertrude Tumpell-Gugerell, former board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), the bank board.
In the eyes of rating agencies, the importance of the financial sector in Austria is one of the risks to the country's sovereign rating.
Standard & Poor's withdrew its Vienna "AAA" in January and Moody's said she could do the same.
Unemployment in the euro area reached a high of almost fifteen years in February, with more than 17 million unemployed, and economists expect a further deterioration in this years.
The unemployment rate in the 17 countries in the region stood at 10.8% of the workforce, up 0.1 points from January, according to data published are from Eurostat.
"We expect that it continues to rise, reaching 11% by the end of the year," said Raphael Brun-Aguerre, economist at JP Morgan in London.
"There are redundancies in the public sector, incomes are falling, consumption is sluggish. The prospect of economic growth is negative and will reinforce unemployment, "he said
. The level reached in Feb February – for the first time since June 1997 – reflects the tenth consecutive month, an opposite trend to that enjoyed by the U.S. economy, credit e jobs since last year
. Economists are divided on the effectiveness of austerity policies adopted es by European governments to reduce their debt, the economic crisis affecting tax revenues, the purchasing power of consumers and investors' confidence that collapsed the year last.
Other statistics released Monday show a contraction of manufacturing in the euro area for the eighth consecutive month in March, reinforcing fears of recession in the European bloc.
North-South disparities
Despite these negative outlook, the European Central Bank (ECB) should maintain its interest rates to 1% at its monthly meeting Wednesday, rising oil prices keeping inflation above 2%, the limit under which it intends to maintain it.
"With inflation remains stubbornly high in the euro area, there is little hope of a recovery in consumption," said Jennifer McKeown, an analyst at Capital Markets.
The debates between members of the ECB in Frankfurt are more complicated than expected a little more optimistic this year fizzled, the contraction of the activity in manufacturing and construction affecting even Germany, the strongest economy of the area.
On the employment front, the northern countries of Europe, however, remain better off than their southern partners, whose economies are sealed by years of uncontrolled ready , an inadequate labor laws and a very competitive industry.
The unemployment rate remained stable in Germany and to 5.7% of the workforce in February, when it peaked around the Mediterranean, from 9.3% in Italy to 24% in Spain, which holds the sad record of the euro area.
The Spanish government has yet to unveil a great austerity budget aimed at saving € 27 billion more by the end of 2012 to fulfill the goal of deficit of 5.2% of GDP and regain investor confidence.
Beyond the euro area, the unemployment rate in all 27 countries of the European Union amounted to 10.2% of the workforce in February , or 24.5 million unemployed, against 10.1% in January.
Nicolas Sarkozy is the "worst manager in history," Friday accuse Michel Sapin and Jerome Cahuzac, two experts on public finance team of Francois Hollande.
This attack follows the satisfaction of the Head of State after the announcement of a 2011 deficit lower than expected.
"Nicolas Sarkozy is carrying the six worst deficits in history recent budget," wrote the former finance minister and the chairman of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, in a statement.
They recall that before the crisis, the largest deficits of the Fifth Republic had been achieved when Nicolas Sarkozy was budget minister (1993-1995).
"The figure of 5.2% budget deficit in 2011 compared to the GDP hides the continuing and disturbing increase in debt of France," they continue.
"The other significant figure announced by INSEE, is that the increased revenue from taxes paid by the French," they add.
Nicolas Sarkozy promised if elected to bring the public accounts in balance in 2016, for the first time since 1974. Francois Hollande provides balance in 2017.
Wall Street opened sharply higher Monday, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, who hinted that the Fed will continue its accommodative monetary policy to support demand and help lower the unemployment rate.
In early trade, the Dow Jones took 0.80% (104 points) at 13,186 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, gained 0.84% (11 points) at 1,408 points while the Nasdaq composite advanced 0.84% (26 points) to 3094 points.
Growth of the U.S. economy will have to accelerate job creation that do fall further unemployment, Ben Bernanke said Monday.
"An additional significant improvement in the unemployment rate will probably require a more rapid growth of production and demand from consumers and businesses, a process that can be supported by continued accommodative policies , "he said.
The dollar turned down against the euro after these statements. The single currency was trading at over $ 1.33.
Values, Lions Gate Entertainment gained almost 5% in early trade, after the flying start to his latest production, "The Hunger Games", which produced 214 million dollars in revenue for its first weekend of operation.
Investors monitor the numbers of the promises of housing sales (at 14:00 GMT), expected up 1% in February after rising 2% in January.
The S & P 500 fell 0.5% last week, a relatively modest decline but still the sharpest recorded over a week since late December.
The U.S. economy created 734,000 jobs in three months and over a million in five months. As a result, experts are beginning to revise their growth forecasts upwards.
Once again the United States are surprisingly dynamic. They experienced in the month of February a new massive hiring, confirming the scenario of a widespread economic recovery. The government says the country has indeed created 227,000 more jobs than it removed in February, which is higher than the net balance of 206,000 that gave the median forecast of analysts. The net job creation is well above 200,000 for the third consecutive month.
The hiring of January have not enough to lower unemployment, which remained at 8.3%, its lowest level for three years, according to official figures released Friday in Washington.
In theory, the strength of job creation should lead to lower unemployment. This has not occurred because the labor force increased as much (0.3% compared to January) that the number of employed persons, according to government figures.
However, unlike previous upturns, the number of hours worked across the Atlantic is recovering strongly. This number of hours has already recovered its pre-crisis level and will continue to climb, because the stock of workers who say they work part time for economic reasons will melt slowly. "The expert consensus expects U.S. growth between 2 and 2.5% for the next three years. However, the U.S. will probably a little better ", the experts conclude Deutsche Bank
. The Ministry figures show that in February, employment grew in all sectors except retail trade, construction and public service. In the latter, job losses, which are the norm for over a year , have slowed considerably since there were only 6,000 per month from December to February, against more than 20,000 from September to November. The employment report further states that the average hourly wage increased 0.1% from January to 23.31 dollars. On a year, says the Ministry, the increase in hourly wages was 1.9% which remains below its most recent measurement of the inflation (2.9% yoy in January)
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GDP grew by only 2.7% in 2011 against 7.5% in Brazil in 2010. The Brazilian economy has actually stagnated in the third quarter. Bay View of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil's economic growth slowed to 2.7% in 2011, after reaching 7.5% at the end of fiscal 2010, according to data released Tuesday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, public). This is slightly lower than the government forecast that predicted a GDP growth of around 3%, confirming a slower growth of the Brazilian economy was already expected by the experts because of the international crisis.
The Brazilian economy grew by 7.5% in 2010, in frank recovery from the crisis of 2008 and 2009. The sectors that grew the most in 2011 were the food (3.9%), services (2.7%) and industry (1.6%), according to IBGE.
In the fourth quarter 2011, GDP in the first Latin American economy grew by 0.3% over the third quarter and 1.4% over the same period in 2010. From July to September, growth had stagnated écomomie Brazilian.
The pact provides for the establishment of fiscal and golden rules more automatic sanctions against countries that exceed the limit of 3% of GDP for public deficits. The UK and Czech Republic have refused to sign. The reduced VAT rate for ISPs is in the crosshairs of the European Commission.
Twenty-five countries of the European Union on Friday signed at a summit in Brussels the new Treaty establishing more fiscal discipline in Europe to learn from the debt crisis which shook the euro area. The pact provides for the establishment of "Golden Rules budget" on the balance of public accounts and automatic sanctions against countries that exceed the limit of 3% of GDP for public deficits yearly.
These rules should preferably be written into the constitution of the States, but not necessarily. "This is an important step to strengthen confidence in our economic and monetary union," said President of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, during a signing ceremony at a summit in Brussels . "I think it is a strong signal that we draw lessons from the crisis, we understand the signals" sent by the financial markets "and we want a future with a politically united Europe," added the Chancellor Angela Merkel.
This new treaty was demanded by Berlin in exchange for its continued financial solidarity to fragile countries of the euro area. It was signed by only 25 of the 27 members of the European Union, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic have declined. It must now be ratified by at least 12 signatory states before they can begin to take effect. All countries in the eurozone will not will not receive financial assistance from its partners over the future relief fund that will start this summer, the European Stability Mechanism (SPM). This ratification might be complicated especially in Ireland, who announced the holding of a referendum on this, inherently dangerous.
Wall Street opened slightly higher on Thursday after figures showing that weekly jobless claims remained close to a low of four years, but investors will need other incentives to buyers remain after the gains accumulated since early 2012.
In early trade, the Dow advanced 0.48% or 61.98 points, to 13,014.05 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, gained 0.48% (6.58 points) to 1,372.26 points while the Nasdaq composite risen by 0.45% (13.45 points) to 2,980.34.
On February, the S & P 500 benchmark index fund managers, took 4.1%, the Dow 2.5% and Nasdaq 5.4%.
That said, as this bull cycle is built on trade volumes lean, many players anticipate a downtrend market in the short term.
"We are on a sacred launched two months ago and, at some point, it will pause. In previously published data, there was nothing that could trigger a movement in one direction or the other, "said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial
. The weekly jobless claims fell slightly in the U.S. during the week to 25 fe February, to stand out as expected at 351,000, close to a low of nearly four years, announced Thursday the Labor Department
…… But … consumer spending adjusted for inflation emerged unchanged for the third month following January, a trend that could raise questions about the country's economic outlook, the household expenditure constitutes one of the main drivers of the U.S. economy.
At 1500 GMT, was expected ISM manufacturing index and construction spending.
In the area of distribution, as Gap took 10.18% to 25.74 dollars after the chain of clothing stores reported an increase in February for its constant-store sales for the first time in eight months.
The action of Ford advanced 2.18% to 12.65 dollars in anticipation that the builder had a very good month of February in terms of vehicle sales in the United States. The group will release its monthly figures during the day. Chrysler has already reported a jump of 40% of its U.S. sales last month.
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