World and National News

Google prefers to resign rather than submit. Two months after revealing that massive computer attacks were conducted from China against its infrastructure, the American would be safe "99.9%" to abandon its Chinese search engine, reported the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal this weekend. According to an anonymous source quoted by the British newspaper, a closure plan Google.cn, has already been developed. Only the execution date is unknown. Last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced that an outcome would be found "quickly".

Asked on Monday, a spokesman for Google said that discussions with the Chinese authorities were not broken. But they seem to be at an impasse.Google, which has complied with the demands of Chinese censors in its entry into the country four years ago, agreeing to serve the political or pornographic content, wants more today affect its results. Opposite, China reminds him that its laws must be respected, otherwise to "pay the price." Any other choice would be "unfriendly and irresponsible," warned Friday the Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong.

Uncertainty about other Google products

If Google decides to close its Chinese search engine, but the consequences should be above all symbolic. In January, Google had thus ensured that its financial results in the country were "immaterial" (600 million dollars in 2009, according to an estimate by Morgan Stanley).In this sector, it is far outstripped by Baidu, which has a market share of 58%, whose share increased by 3.2% Tuesday on rumors of departure from its competitor. "The Internet market in China will continue to grow rapidly and the impact will not be too big," assured the minister Li Yizhong.

A withdrawal could instead be casting doubts on the future of other Google products, including mobile phones Android, China being the most dynamic market in the world. The impact on freedom of expression is not clear. The approximately 400 million Internet users in the country, wishing to continue using the engine will go through the U.S. version of the site may be blocked. China carries indeed very strict filtering on Western sites most popular, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, owned by Google.

The index futures are predicting a slight opening up U.S. markets already after three consecutive sessions in green. Thursday, S & P 500 closed at its highest since 17 months.

Investors seemed reassured by the latest statistics. The U.S. trade deficit fell to 37.29 billion dollars from 39.9 billion in January. For specialists Barclays Exchange, "it is a pleasant surprise to the extent that economists were expecting a deficit of 41 billion dollars." Other good news side of the labor market "listings weekly unemployment fell to 462,000 from 469,000 the previous week.

On Wall Street will be sitting under the sign consumer with the publication of sales information for the month of February and the preliminary estimate of consumer confidence.Business inventories for the month of January will be published in late afternoon.

Shortly before the opening, futures on Nasdaq 100 and Standard & Poor's 500 advanced 0.01% respectively at 1925.50 points from 0.06% to 1151.30 points.

On the side of values, the CEO of Citigroup has pledged a return to profitability of the bank. The state could get rid of all of its shares within twelve months. The title of Citigroup rose 30% since the beginning of the month and by 20% since the stock market Monday.

For several sessions throughout the banking sector enjoys a renewed interest from investors. On Thursday, he was also concerned by the failure of talks in the U.S. Senate to reform the financial system.After several months of effort, Senator Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has not succeeded in concluding an agreement between Republicans and Democrats on this bill to reform the banking system.

In the energy sector, Devon Energy, a specialist in the production of oil will sell at BP Plc for seven billion dollars of assets located in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico.

Note also the manufacturer of semiconductor National Semi-conductor announced after the close of the NYSE, a profit of 53.2 million, or 22 cents a share against 18 cents expected by analysts' consensus. Turnover was 361.9 million against 348.6 million expected by analysts.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker, called Thursday a survey of the European Union on financial derivatives, and hoped the ban on "speculative transactions" the regarding.

In a letter dated March 10 released Thursday by the Elysee, the three leaders and the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou proposed that the European Commission "due diligence as soon as possible an investigation into the role and impact of Speculation on CDS (credit default swaps, Ed) the obligations of European states. " CDSs are contracts to exchange the risks of default of a company or a state.Speculation on these CDS are singled out in the financial crisis currently Greece, heavily indebted.

Minimum holding period of CDS

"If this investigation was to expose abuses of market or that it exhibits evidence that speculation has an impact on interest rates, we will quickly review and action as appropriate, adopt laws and regulations necessary to end, "adds Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-Claude Junker and George Papandreou cash till payday advance .

On the ground, the reality remains difficult for households. The number of properties seized by banks from borrowers who fell into default continues to climb.2.8 million homes have been taken last year. This year, the record will be beaten. The firm RealtyTrac expects 4.5 million seized in 2010. Optimists point to the stabilization of 9.5% "rate of late payment" mortgage loans in the fourth quarter. Still, the continued rise in defaults ending with seizures. The default rate is now higher than 5%. Equally alarming: the sharp deterioration of late payments by households belonging to a class yet considered less risky. The worst wave of default on subprime niche (highly indebted households) is certainly past.But the failure of the wealthier classes at record levels and is now approaching 10%.

This situation is equally problematic for banks whose balance sheets do not fully reflect the rising defaults on U.S. households trapped in unemployment and the collapse of their heritage. "Overall, we believe that U.S. banks have realized that a third of their losses on residential mortgages," said Robert McNatt agency Standard & Poor's.Financial institutions have beautiful long as possible seizures of homes, high unemployment and the proliferation of "strategic flaws" (see glossary below cons) continue to plumb their balance sheets.

GLOSSARY

• Hamp (or Affordable Home Modification Program)

Federal program encouraging banks to reduce rates and lengthen the duration of mortgage loans to households have at least 60 days late payment of their monthly payments.

The Treasury has set aside 75 billion dollars by 2012 to modify loans 3 to 4 million homes and avoid the seizure of their property and their expulsion. For a year, 830 000 borrowers have tried this program on an experimental basis.But 25% are again in arrears.

• Strategic Default

This is a practice that leads borrowers to stop paying their monthly mortgage lenders by personal choice or calculation, and not for reasons of loss of resources. The "strategic failure" is made safer in states like California or Arizona, where the bank can seize the house of the borrower and not its other assets.

• Under Water

For a home, it will return "under water" when the market value of their property has fallen below the amount of his debt to the bank. This applies to almost 10% of households in the United States who have subscribed to a mortgage.

Good news for European women: since the month of May 2009, their unemployment rate, usually systematically higher than men, for the first time fell below theirs. A sudden catch that unfortunately we can not impute to the crisis. The sectors of industry and construction, traditionally male, have been particularly affected by the decline in economic activity, while those within the tertiary sector, more investment by women were generally spared. But this statistic, although seemingly positive for women, also stresses that many sectors are overwhelmingly invested in either one or the other sex.

The report Gr?sy devoted to professional equality between men and women, has certainly highlighted the "tremendous progress" already observed in the field: women now represent France in 47% of the workforce in 2007, and this 83% are women 25 to 49 years who work. Above all, the mix has risen sharply among the most skilled trades. The social portrait of INSEE reports that young women who leave the education system with a level of training on average than that of boys, have become a large majority among the legal profession (there are now so many lawyers than lawyers), communication, or doctors.Even among the skilled trades to more technical nature, where they remain in low numbers, a trend is emerging: there are now nearly 40% of female engineers or technical managers fresh out of school, as against 9% among older !

A marked polarization in low-skilled occupations

But the picture is not all rosy. And it seems that both ends of the scale of qualifications is the rub. At the top level, the proportion of women remains marginal: 8% of women just sit on boards of directors of the 500 largest French companies, so that a bill is to introduce a quota for women in these bodies. And it's almost the same sound of a bell among the least skilled jobs."The mix has even declined," says Florence Chappert, special assistant to the department skills, work and employment Anact (National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions). "Among low-skilled occupations, trades polarization between men and women is sometimes even more pronounced among beginners in the former, confirming Insee.

Overall, if the girls were always reduced appetite for professional studies, they are still more likely to opt for health and social sectors or specialties Secretariat, when it run. For boys, it is instead the power-electronic outweighs their votes.Result: the construction workers are at 98% of men, those in process industries are at 76%, while, unsurprisingly, 98% of secretaries are women, and that 98% of home helps, 75% administrative workers of category C, 99% of childminders … If the cultural environment is of course a factor in explaining this distribution, Florence Chappert said he is not alone: "If we wanted a stronger proportion of men among the home support, this would require review and atypical partial schedules that are so frequent, often at the expense of women, and raise wages, "said she. Just as the introduction of female workers would necessarily lead to a mitigation of the harshness of the trade."However, there is no question of the mix at any price: the men and women can sometimes lose to find exactly the same positions.

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The journal "Gender and Labor Conditions of Anact

Like the Paris markets, U.S. stock markets opened in green on Friday, supported by the employment figures less bad than expected. The United States has in fact lost 36,000 jobs in February than in January and the unemployment rate the country has remained stable at 9.7% this month, according to the official report on employment released on Friday, while analysts expected a decline. The Dow Jones advance of 0.36% at 10,482 points, the S & P 500 rose 0.46% to 1128 points and the Nasdaq's 0.46% to 2303 points.

U.S. investors are reassured by the Prime Minister's announcement that China has promised a 8% growth for China this year.Thursday, Wall Street closed higher on a comfortable, supported by bearings recommendations.

In addition to the employment figures U.S., those of consumer credit in January, will be published in 21 hours.

As for currencies, the euro fell sharply Friday against a dollar backed by the release of employment figures in the United States, and reassuring the operators on the strength of the recovery of the world's largest economy now payday loans .

The company announced Wednesday it had granted Bausch & Lomb the exclusive worldwide rights of NCX 116, treatment of glaucoma and ocular hypertension, for a total of up to $ 169.5 million.

In exchange, investors reacted immediately: the NicOx shares rose almost 6%. Rebelotte Thursday with unehausse of 5.7%. Thus, actions cotent at closing 5.92 euros. The bar is close to EUR 6.

However, the exchange price is still below its levels there are still four months (the title was worth ? 7.9) or June 2009 (it was over 10 euros) … or all of its first steps on the Paris stock exchange (the record stands at 39 euros). It was late 1999.

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