Euro bursts to fresh dollar high

The US dollar was dragged down further against the euro in Asian trade as dealers bet that further poor US economic data could lead to a rate cut.In early Tokyo trade, the euro climbed to $1.4283 after breaching the $1.42 level for the first time last week.Traders are now looking ahead to US jobless data out on Friday for a better idea of how the housing slump and credit woes are hurting the economy.Depressed numbers could strengthen the Fed's hand in cutting rates further.The dollar has been sliding since the Federal Reserve cut rates from 5.25% to 4.75% in September to help rejuvenate confidence in the world's largest economy.This followed a summer of turmoil in the world's credit markets, sparked by record loan defaults in the US sub-prime mortgage sector.Since then, a raft of mostly disappointing economic news and soft inflation figures has prompted anticipation of further rate cuts. Eurozone ratesMeanwhile, the European Central Bank's rate-setting committee is due to meet this week.No change is expected in the 13-member eurozone's key interest rate, which is currently 4%.Analysts say the ECB will want to exercise caution in the face of fragile stock markets, although Mr Trichet has maintained recently that Europe's economy remains strong.Investors will listen carefully to the words used by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet in the news conference after the meeting for any indication of where eurozone rates will be headed next.

La hausse se poursuit en Asie

Les places asiatiques évoluent dans le vert. La décision prise par la Fed mardi soir de baisser ses taux directeurs à 4.75% continue de porter ses fruits. En Chine, le gouvernement a décidé de geler les prix sur certains articles afin de contenir l’inflation.

A Bombay, le Sensex s'adjuge 0.17% à 16350.05 points. L'ASX 20 australien gagne 0.16% à 3438.4 points. Le Hang Seng de Hong Kong prend 0.31% à 25633.68 points.
L'indice composite de Shanghai s'apprécie de 0.71% à 5433.69 points. Afin de contenir l’inflation, le gouvernement chinois a pris des mesures draconiennes mercredi soir. Le gel des prix sur certains articles (les produits visés n'ont pas été spécifiés) a été ordonné, et les autorités locales doivent surveiller de près les prix du porc et de la nourriture sur les marchés. Les statistiques dévoilées le 11 septembre étaient alarmantes. Les prix à la consommation au mois d'août ont grimpé de 6.5% sur un an, soit un plus haut depuis plus de dix ans. Les prix de l'alimentation ont crû de 18.2%, avec une flambée de 49% dans la viande.
Au Japon, le Nikkei 225 est stable à 16383 points. Hier, la Banque du Japon (BoJ) a maintenu son taux directeur inchangé à 0.50%, niveau auquel il se trouve depuis février.
Au chapitre des valeurs, les promoteurs immobiliers évoluent en territoire positif. Sumitomo Realty & Development prend 1.13%. Mitsui Fudosan s'octroie 1.24%.
Dans le rouge, on retrouve les valeurs du crédit à la consommation. Promise Co dévisse de 5.76%. Acom plonge de 7.75%. Aiful dégringole de 11.12%
Sur le marché des changes, l'euro se négocie autour des 161.95 yens et le dollar autour des 115.86 yens. La parité euro contre dollar s'échange autour de 1.3975 dollar.

Le "Charles-de-Gaulle" a pris ses quartiers d’hiver à Toulon

L’entretien du porte-avions durera dix-huit mois et représente un budget de 300 millions d’euros.

«C’EST LE plus grand chantier industriel de la région», se félicite le capitaine de vaisseau Stéphane Boivin, le nouveau pacha du porte-avions Charles-de-Gaulle. Le fleuron de la Marine nationale est en cale sèche dans le grand bassin de la zone Vauban, à Toulon, depuis le 30 juillet. Depuis sa mise en service il y a six ans, c’est sa première indisponibilité programmée pour entretien et réparations, «Iper» dans le jargon de la Marine. Le chantier, qui démarre le 1er septembre, a été confié à DCN Service Toulon
pour lequel c’est la plus grosse opération de « maintien en condition opérationnelle » jamais réalisée. Compte tenu du caractère stratégique du bâtiment, la France ne disposant que d’un seul porte-avions, la Marine a imposé un rythme accéléré: les travaux ne doivent durer que 15 mois au lieu de 30 pour les porte-avions américains ou 22 mois pour les sous-marins nucléaires français. Pour réaliser cette performance, trois ans de préparation ont été nécessaires. Ce chantier de très grande ampleur est en effet très com¬plexe. Et coûteux. Il représente un budget total de 300 millions d’euros dont 230 millions pour l’Iper elle-même et 70 millions pour la modernisation et l’adaptation.
Pas moins de 16500 interventions sont programmées d’ici au 31 octobre 2008 et trois sont particulièrement importantes. Il y a tout d’abord le rechargement des deux cœurs nucléaires du porte-avions, dont le combustible est épuisé. Ensuite, c’est le changement des deux hélices qui lors de la mise en service du Charles-de-Gaulle avaient dû être remplacées en urgence par des pièces en provenance du Clemenceau ou du Foch. Enfin, la troisième grande intervention sera la réfection des installations aéronautiques pour préparer l’arrivée des nouveaux avions de combat.
Mille hommes d’équipage
Pour accueillir ce navire de 261,50 mètres de long et de 64 mètres de large, la Marine a investi 40 millions d’euros dans la rénovation de la zone Vauban dans le port de Toulon: changer des grues, refaire la station de pompage ainsi que les sols du bassin, acquérir un bateau-porte (utilisé pour fermer la forme de radoub et mettre le navire hors d’eau) et implanter autour du bassin un véritable village industriel avec son propre restaurant, capable d’accueillir les 1600 personnes qui travailleront sur le site.
Pour l’heure, mille hommes d’équipage préparent le bateau. Ils devraient fournir 1,2 million d’heures de travail. Et 1,2 million d’heures supplémentaires seront effectuées par 600 salariés de DCNS et d’une cinquantaine d’entreprises sous-traitantes en charge de 40% des travaux. Parmi elles, des poids lourds comme Areva TA (ex-Technicatome), Cegelec, Snef, mais également des entreprises régionales de chaudronnerie, d’électricité ou de mécanique comme le Chantier naval des Baux ou la société Eiffel de Fos-sur-Mer qui a réalisé le bateau-porte de 1200 tonnes.
Depuis son changement de statut en 2003, DCNS est devenue une entreprise autonome. Cela signifie qu’elle doit être rentable tout en pratiquant des prix 20% inférieurs à ce qu’elle facturait quand elle était un service de l’État. Pour cela, DCNS sous-traite une grande partie du travail et se concentre sur la maîtrise d’œuvre, l’ingénierie, les activités les plus spécifiques, les plus risquées et à plus forte valeur ajoutée

Ryanair's Eurostar claim banned

Ryanair has been banned from claiming its flight from London to Brussels is faster and cheaper than making the journey by Eurostar.The claim was misleading because it ignored time taken travelling from city centres to airports, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said.Ryanair's advert compared its 70-minute flight with a 131-minute train journey.But travelling from the heart of London and Brussels would add one hour and 45 minutes to the journey, the ASA said.And costs for those journeys to and from airports at both ends of the journey meant that claims Ryanair's service was cheaper were also misleading.Punctuality claimsRyanair defended its position, saying that time and costs involved in getting to an airport or railway station were "irrelevant" as they applied to both modes of transport.In a statement, the airline added that "no stupid ruling" from the ASA could hide the success of the airline."Only the very rich or the very slow waste their time on Eurostar," it said.Ryanair's main London base, Stansted airport, is about 25 miles outside the centre of the capital while Charleroi airport is some 28.5 miles outside of Brussels."We considered that many readers would not be aware of the locations of the airports and additional costs incurred," the ASA said.Ryanair was also found to have made inaccurate claims when it said that Ryanair's flights on the route were more punctual than Eurostar's service.The budget airline was told by the ASA to remove all the claims from its adverts.In July the ASA ordered Ryanair not to repeat an advertisement that played down the impact of aviation on the environment.In a press campaign the airline claimed the airline industry "accounts for just 2% of carbon dioxide emissions".The ASA ruled it breached rules on truthfulness by not explaining the figure was based on global rather than UK emissions.
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HBOS bails out own fund as effect of credit crisis spreads

The credit crisis inched closer to the heart of the British financial system yesterday as HBOS, the banking group, disclosed that it was bailing out a vast in-house fund that has been struggling to finance itself.HBOS, which owns Halifax and Bank of Scotland, said that it would extend credit to Grampian, a $37 billion (£19 billion) Jersey-registered debt- financed fund, until market conditions improved.The move came as the Bank of England disclosed that it had provided £314 million of emergency funding to a financial institution that it did not name, but which is understood to be Barclays.Grampian, a so-called conduit or credit arbitrage fund, holds asset- backed securities and normally finances its investments by issuing short-term commercial paper. However, demand for commercial paper has dried up as banks and investors shun all but the most risk-free of assets in a flight to ultra-safe government bonds.function pictureGalleryPopup(pubUrl,articleId) {var newWin = window.open(pubUrl+'template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id='+articleId+'&&offset=0&§ionName=IndustrySectorsBankingFinance','mywindow','menubar=0,resizable=0,width=615,height=655');}HBOS’s decision to finance Grampian from its own resources means that it may have to raise £19 billion within six months — and most of that within weeks unless credit conditions improve. The average maturity of the Grampian commercial paper is just 55 days.HBOS said: “Grampian will use facilities provided by HBOS to repay maturing asset-backed commercial paper until such time as market pricing improves to a level acceptable to HBOS.” The group said that the action would “have no material adverse impacts on HBOS” and added that it had liquidity lines sufficient to repay the entire £19 billion. Grampian’s assets are held on the HBOS balance sheet, but do not have to be marked to market, enabling HBOS to ride out the storm without having to make big writedowns, according to one well-placed source. The fund is thought to have only about $300 million in securities backed by American sub-prime mortgages.Many banks have built up conduits in recent years, but Grampian is the biggest in the world, equivalent to 57 per cent of HBOS’s £33 billion stock market value. Until recently conduits have been able to borrow short term at low rates and invest proceeds in higher-yielding longer-maturity securities.Sources described Barclays’s use of the Bank’s emergency facility, which is priced at a punitive 1 per cent above base rate, as an operational issue and not related to fears over liquidity. It is the first time that the facility has been used since the credit market soured.

El PP pide la comparecencia de Solbes en el Congreso para hablar de la crisis financiera

AGENCIAS
MADRID.- El Partido Popular solicitará hoy la comparecencia ante la Comisión de Economía del Congreso de los Diputados del vicepresidente económico, Pedro Solbes, para que explique las medidas adoptadas por el Ejecutivo ante la situación que viven los mercados financieros por la crisis de las hipotecas 'basura' en EEUU.
El portavoz adjunto del PP en el Congreso, Vicente Martínez- Pujalte, ha indicado en un comunicado que, ante una situación financiera mundial que es "bastante preocupante, el Gobierno socialista se ha escondido y no ha dado la cara".
No obstante, el presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, transmitió este martes al Rey el respaldo a la decisión del Banco Central Europeo (BCE) de inyectar liquidez al mercado del dinero, una medida que Pujalte consideró un "parche" que "no pone remedio a la enfermedad".
Además, el jefe del ejecutivo resaltó las "bases muy sólidas" de la economía española para responder a la crisis de las hipotecas de alto riesgo de EEUU y dijo que la evolución económica ha tenido un "cuadro positivo" en los años 2006 y en estos meses del 2007. En el segundo trimestre del año, el PIB creció un 4%, una décima menos que entre enero y marzo.
El jefe del Ejecutivo, en un posterior encuentro con los medios, expresó su confianza en las instituciones financieras y en los colectivos de inversión de España y subrayó que la crisis en EEUU no afectará de manera "significativa" a la evolución de la economía en general y de la española en particular.
15 fondos españoles, 'tocados' por la crisis
La Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) ya ha recibido notificación de 15 fondos y sociedades de inversión (SICAV) españoles, de ocho entidades distintas, afectados por la crisis del mercado hipotecario de EEUU.
El regulador ha pedido a las gestoras de fondos que comuniquen a través de hechos relevantes su grado de exposición a fondos u otros vehículos de inversión con capital dentro del negocio 'subprime'.En este sentido, Rodríguez Zapatero comunicó al Rey que tanto el Ministerio de Economía, como el Banco de España y la CNMV "están atentos" a los efectos de esta crisis.
Martínez-Pujalte, por su parte, ha insistido en que el Ejecutivo "está funcionando de una manera muy autista, sin plantearse ningún tipo de medida, ni en un sentido ni en otro".
Así, además de solicitar la comparecencia de Solbes, dirigirá una batería de preguntas al Gobierno para saber "si se han puesto en marcha medidas de vigilancia especiales sobre entidades financieras y sobre los fondos, y si se están tomando medidas para evitar el contagio de unos fondos a otros", después de que más de una decena ya hayan admitido que están afectados por la crisis.

Hull in interest rate firing line

Many places in the UK, including flood-ravaged Hull, are beginning to feel the effects of recent UK interest rate rises, a credit agency has said.Experian looked at UK towns and cities to see which would be hardest hit by five rate rises since last August.It analysed income, borrowing and spending patterns of residents to see which places lose from rate rises.Slough, Corby and Stevenage were also cited as places where consumers may be struggling from higher borrowing costs.The places where a major proportion of the population are in debt are particularly vulnerable to higher rates, the study said."Hull is joined by a number of areas of the UK that contain higher proportions of people with large mortgages, lower gross incomes, significant levels of unsecured borrowing and fewer savings," said Neil Blake, chief economist at Experian.On the flip side, locations where residents had few debts but high levels of savings were winners.Experian named East Dorset, North Norfolk and East Sussex as areas with large number of savers who could benefit from rate increases.

Giuliani Raised $17.5 Million in Second-Quarter

ABC News' Jan Simmonds Reports: The Rudy Giuliani campaign confirmed Friday it raised $17.5-million in the second quarter, $14.9 of which can be used during the primaries. Giuliani's fundraising totals became official after the campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday. The former New York City mayor is the first '08 candidate to submit detailed finances to the FEC; the deadline is midnight Sunday.Giuliani's strong showing was expected based on financial information the candidates disclosed to media earlier this month. Giuliani is expected to be the fundraising leader among the Republican presidential candidates for the second quarter -- which covers April to July.Giuliani may also have the most cash on hand of any '08 GOP candidate, with $18.3 million in the bank, $3.7 million of that dedicated to the general election.His filing shows that the vast amount of his contributions came from his home state of New York, California, Florida and Texas totaling $9.1-million. Giuliani is popular among Republicans in the fundraising meccas of California, New York, and Florida, and he has a wide network of contacts in Texas where he is a partner in a Houston-based law firm.Among those contributing to Giuliani's campaign, Wall Street lead the way. He collected $142,850 from Ernst and Young employees, another $75,800 from Highland Capital, a financial investment firm, and over $200,000 from employees of other firms.Critics say the Giuliani campaign got off to a slow start, but the campaign appears to have increased its infrastructure. The campaign's payroll almost doubled in the second quarter, with $2.5-million including taxes going out, compared to $1.3-million in the first three months of the campaign. The filings also show the Giuliani campaign now has headquarters or office space in nine states.