Paris and Berlin Monday urged Athens to accept a new austerity in exchange for financial assistance, but the Greek political parties have postponed their Tuesday response to drastic conditions imposed by donors.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it was to settle the Greek crisis "once and for all," Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that his side " time is running out for Athens. "

The two leaders were speaking at a joint press conference at the Elysee while the "troika" comprising the European Union, IMF and the Bank of Central Europe ; enemies is waiting for government commitments and major Greek parties on the vote of these measures. 

The European Commission ruled that the Greek government had missed the deadline to Monday midday to conclude discussions on the subject.

A Greek official said the only deadline is a Eurogroup meeting, but no date is fixed for the meeting, which should however take place this week.

Meanwhile, an agreement between Greece and its private creditors, announced as imminent for two weeks, slow to materialize.

The three parties supporting the government led by Lucas Papademos reluctant to finally commit to austerity measures. Supposed to agree Sunday night and Monday morning, they finally postponed their meeting Tuesday.

BLOCKED ACCOUNT

The news release announcing the postponement, issued shortly after the press conference in Paris by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, no explanation, saying only that Lucas Papademos will further talks Monday with representatives of the Troika.

The leaders of the Socialist Party (PASOK), the conservative party New Democracy and Laos (far right), all vying for the parliamentary elections due in April, are expected to find a compromise on such difficult issues as the reform of the labor market or bank recapitalization. 

Sunday, after five hours of discussion, Lucas Papademos said that party leaders had agreed on a number of measures, including wage cuts, as part a plan to cut spending 1.5% of gross domestic product.

According to an official policy, the three parties have postponed their meeting because they had not received a 15-page summary of the conclusions of discussions Sunday.

The slow pace of negotiations in Athens has eroded the patience of donors, although agreement is essential to avoid a default on Athens 14.5 billion euros debt maturing in March. 

Merkel said she could not conceive of new aid plan "if there is no agreement with the troika."

"The parameters of the regulations are on the table," said Nicolas Sarkozy, in holding that an agreement had "never been closer" and he could not imagine a failure .

The French president on the other hand proposed, with the consent of the German Chancellor, the blocking of an account of a portion of future assistance under the new plan to the tune of interests of the Greek debt remaining to guarantee their repayment to creditors. 

CALL FOR STRIKE Tuesday

The hope of progress in terms of the recapitalization of banks, which would avoid nationalization, Monday favored the increase of these values ​​to the Athens Stock Exchange: Towards 1600 GMT, the local index banks posted a gain of nearly 11%.

But the silence of Athens and the absence of political agreement on the conditions imposed by the troika has weighed on the major European markets: the Paris Stock Exchange closed down 0.7%, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.2%. As for the Stoxx European banking stocks, has declined 0.6%.

The euro stabilized against the dollar in parallel, at about 1.3116 against 1.3112 on Friday night.

While political discussions are extended to Athens, the country's two main unions have called for a 24-hour strike Tuesday to protest against a policy that they say threatens to drag the country into a destructive spiral.

The one, who runs short of personal cards often face losses in the form of loss of new business orders. Running out of business cards is the worst situation one can get in the commercial world.

The group specializes in the trade press and trade fairs Reed Elsevier reported Wednesday an increase of 1% of its turnover for the first nine months of the year to provide comparables and said earnings per share on year in line with expectations.

According to a spokesperson, the group consensus estimates for EPS to show between 45 and 46 pence, representing an increase of 4% to 6%.

In exchange, the action was down 0.82% to 8.80 euros in Amsterdam and from 1% to 532 pence in London, while the European index of the media sector earns 0.7%.

Each of the five divisions of the Anglo-Dutch group is growing its billing smoothed non-recurring items.

Divided, the European Union decided Tuesday to put the spring at least the creation of a tax on financial transactions, which has yet active support of France and Germany.

Several countries, within and outside the euro area, have expressed strong reservations at the monthly meeting of EU finance ministers that such a tax "Tobin" is implemented in the EU without first being decided at the international level.

"Today the Ecofin, we mainly talked about the tax on financial transactions. The debate was lively," said the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.

As for Britain, which critics have intensified in recent days, she simply asked that the case be permanently archived.

"I suggest we bury the idea that there will be a tax on financial transactions," he told his counterparts the British Minister of Finance, George Osborne.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended sharply higher Monday, the EU summit Sunday with renewed hopes of resolving the crisis in the euro area and diverted the attention of the new rise in the yen and floods in Thailand.

The leaders of the European Union Sunday seemed closer to an agreement on the euro area, including the recapitalisaiton banks and the multiplication of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF).

The Nikkei gained 1.9%, or 165.09 points to 8,843.98 and the Topix, broader, took 11.23 points (1.51%) to 755.44.

The Nikkei, which lost 0.8% last week, crossed the threshold for Monday its moving average of the last five sessions, thus became a threshold of support for 8735 points.

"The news from Europe maintain hope and Wall Street reacted to the rise to these expectations, so the Japanese market is now catching up gains made abroad on blankets in the open position," said Koichi Ogawa, Daiwa SB Investments.

"But Japan is facing its own problems with the strong yen and floods in Thailand, affecting some manufacturing industries.These factors will limit gains in Tokyo and push investors to take a wait, time to see how the situation in Europe. "

Friday, the dollar dropped to a record low against the yen at 75.78, but has slightly rebounded since.

Title Olympus continued its dive to fall by 10.72% to 1,099 yen, after touching a low at the meeting of thirteen and a half to 1,012 yen.

The stock has lost more than half its value since the dismissal of its chief executive on Oct. 14.The latter was accused of incompetence by the presidency of the group, denounced bad practice prior to his arrival at the head of the group.

In technology, Elpida ended up 4.01% to 493 yen, while Sony fell by 1.29% to 1,536 yen.

The tire manufacturer Bridgestone has outperformed the market by winning 4.07% to 1,764 yen after announcing its intention to increase its operating profit by 5.8% of revenue in 2010/11 to 10% in 2016/17.

Bank of America reported an increase in its net income for the third quarter due to both an accounting effect that banks can reap when financial markets are turbulent and a gain on disposals of assets.

The hotel, the first U.S. bank by assets, posted over the period net income of $ 5.9 billion, or $ 0.56 per share against a loss of $ 7.6 billion (-0 , 77 dollar per share) a year ago, when the bank had spent $ 10.4 billion accounting charge.

Driven by hopes of a European bank recapitalization, stock markets continued to grow yesterday. Pars won 0.9%, but Apple's stock in Frankfurt drop 4% following the death of Steve Jobs. Traders on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The DAX ended Tuesday, August 9 close to balance, down 0.10% at 5917.08 points, after an erratic session.

European shares continued their positive momentum on Thursday after strong rebound Wednesday, still driven by hopes of a coordinated recapitalization of banks in Europe to help them withstand the debt crisis in the eurozone. At the opening, the Paris showed a gain of 0.89% on expectations of support measures from the European Central Bank (ECB) to banks in the wake of the mobilization of political leadership on this issue.

In the first few exchanges, Frankfurt progressed from 0.70%.But the action of the American Apple dropped to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after the announcement of the death Wednesday night of the group's co-founder Steve Jobs. The action, which is listed on the open market in Frankfurt, most U.S. markets, lost 3.8% to 272.20 euros at 9:11. The death of Steve Jobs, "one of the greatest American inventors" according to Barack Obama on Wednesday to 56 years, has generated an avalanche of responses to the measure of character, became the symbol of the success of the firm at the apple.

In other European stock markets, London progressed by 0.65%, Madrid and Milan by 0.50% to 0.55%. Wednesday, Paris won 4.33%, London 3.19%, 4.91% Frankfurt, Madrid and Milan 3.06% 3.94% despite the downgrade of the sovereign debt of Italy by Moody's. The strong rebound in European stock markets Wednesday has spread across the Atlantic, where the New York Stock Exchange also ended sharply higher Wednesday.

Back optimism also in Asia on Thursday morning. The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended the session with a gain of 1.66% while Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney also evolved significantly positive territory. Shanghai was closed Thursday. After weeks of dithering, European leaders rallied Wednesday to prevent a collapse of the banking sector, weakened by the debt crisis, which brought down the French-Belgian group Dexia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was "justified" to recapitalize European banks in need, stressing that "time was running out" and that his country was ready to do "if necessary". "The German government is ready, if necessary, to achieve a recapitalization" of banks at home, assured the Chancellor, not excluding that the matter be discussed at the highest level at the next EU summit in Brussels on 17 and October 18.

The daily Die Welt, Merkel intends to convince French President Nicolas Sarkozy to act quickly to support banks, at their meeting on Sunday, while Paris would rather wait. Finance ministers of the EU have asked the parallel European banking regulator (EBA) to assess the impact on the banks of a deep discount applied to the obligations of the Greek state, reported the Financial Times. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), he, actually suggested Wednesday to inject 100 to 200 billion euros in the biggest European banks to stabilize the area.

In this context, as investors wait to see, around 1:45 p.m., what will be the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) on interest rates. This is the last meeting chaired by Jean-Claude Trichet, whose eight-year term as head of the ECB ends October 31.The ECB raised its key rate twice this year for fear of inflation, this time could announce a reduction to support the economy in crisis in the euro area.

The computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard on Thursday confirmed the appointment of former eBay boss Meg Whitman in his general direction, replacing Leo Apotheker decried.

"We are at a critical time and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of market opportunities ahead," said group chairman Ray Layne.

The Board believes that "the position of head of HP currently requires additional skills," he added in reference to Leo Apotheker.

The former CEO of the German company SAP management software was appointed late in September 2010 as head of the California group to succeed Mark Hurd.

HP is not necessarily ready to change strategy, it was explained to Reuters, which would run contrary to rumors on Wall Street.Some had thought that the departure of Leo Apotheker, head of the third row to be forced to take the door at HP would be the prelude to a coaster for substantive decisions taken during his tenure.

He has been considered a possible split of the branch PC and the acquisition of software developer Autonomy UK, some investors fearing that HP does overpays this acquisition.

In less than a year in office, Leo Apotheker has repeatedly reduced the forecast of revenue, returned to the promises concerning the integration of mobile software, amid 50% drop in share price of HP .

Meg Whitman, who was already on the board of directors of HP, is familiar with the consumer and distribution on the Internet.But it will not necessarily be the best choice, some analysts said.

The one who tried unsuccessfully to be elected as governor of California, has transformed the small eBay, which had several dozen employees in 1998, a major distributor on the internet. But the last years of his tenure were marked by growing more hesitant, intensified criticism on Wall Street and a series of acquisitions not necessarily sound like that of the Internet telephony company, Skype, ultimately sold to Microsoft.

HP ended down 4.8%, to 22.80 dollars, wiping out most of the gains of 6.6% recorded Wednesday.Investor enthusiasm for a change at the highest level has turned into caution given the fundamental uncertainty of the group, analysts said.

Strong differences of views on the management of the debt crisis have materialized Friday between Europeans and Americans.

At a crucial meeting of finance ministers of the euro area, which was exceptionally invited the Secretary of U.S. Treasury Timothy Geithner, Germany has refused to commit more public funds to support the euro area , as called for it.

In turn, Timothy Geithner has ruled out a tax on financial transactions, despite their wishes known by the heavyweights of the single currency area such as Germany and France.

The exchange was reported by some journalists to the Austrian Minister of Finance, Maria Fekter.

"He stressed that more funds were needed to prevent the system (financial) is in difficulties.(Wolfgang) Schäuble told him it was very unlikely to be possible to weigh the burden on taxpayers, especially if the burden is imposed on those countries AAA, "she said.

"In these countries, there is a desire to implement a tax on financial transactions (…) It (Geithner) was excluded," she said.

"I think especially that although Americans have basic worse than the euro area they tell us what to do and when we give them a suggestion, they immediately say no I (…) hoped that when they tell us how they see the world they listen to what we have to tell them, "she further said.

At the press conference following the meeting of the Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker, also made a plea in to U.S. demands to curb austerity.

"We see in the euro area no flexibility that allows us to implement a new stimulus package," he said.

"Loose talk"

A debate is at work within the euro area and between Europeans and Americans on whether or not to put a brake on the policy of austerity, while the economic recovery is decelerating sharply.

According to several sources, the whirlwind tour of Europe by Timothy Geithner was to defend the principle of recovery and ensure that the euro area had the will and the tools to manage the crisis.

He called on governments and central banks to work together and avoid "loose talk" on the dismantling of the euro area.

According to several sources of high rank, he also pleaded Friday for the use of leverage to multiply the response capacity of the fund "euro area".

It is currently 440 billion euros but this sum could be too low when the new government fund to recapitalize banks and buy back sovereign debt will take effect this fall.

Jean-Claude Juncker has denied the existence of such a discussion between EU ministers and their U.S. counterpart.

"We do not discuss the increase in the size of EFSF with countries outside the euro area," he said.

A senior source said, however, that this possibility was discussed Friday afternoon.

Germany and other countries had so far rejected an outright increase in the size of the fund and the national parliaments have yet to ratify the new powers of EFSF decided at the EU summit on 21 July.

The lack of recovery in the housing market prevents the activity really leave the United States. Explanations of a slump that may well last for …

One day, the U.S. housing market will leave … But the time has not yet come. To 1000 households, is now under construction 5 units, a record of weakness, experts comment Oddo Securities. The problem with this market? The fall in prices continues, fueled by the liquidation of foreclosed homes. In a speech on September 1, Elizabeth Duke, member of the Fed Board, recalled a few orders of magnitude: 25% of vacant houses for sale come from seizures, about one million properties will swell the stock of houses seized in 2011 in 2012 and 2013, 40% of home sales are forced sales. Under these conditions, a recovery is impossible.

Especially since some seizures – suspected illegal – are investigated.The Central Bank of the United States (Fed) announced that it planned to impose a fine on the U.S. bank Goldman Sachs for "malpractice" of its subsidiary, Litton Loan Servicing. Defuse this situation will take months, at least. But without rebound in real estate – and experts are adamant on this point – the growth prospects remain poor across the Atlantic. Aware of the problem, the authorities are considering new ways (supports tax failed to stem the crisis). Ms. Duke evokes such a large transfer program to sell foreclosed homes on the rental market. Meanwhile, the signs "For Sale" continue to flourish across the United States.

A bank in Asia has cut its credit lines to major French banks and five other Asian banks are revising their lending, said Thursday six banking sources told Reuters.

The sudden increase in the sense of risk associated with the sharp fall in the prices of French banks Wednesday, prompted some banks in Asia to review their counterparty risks and look at whether they should reduce their exposure to European banks, the sources explained of six Asian banks.

Rumors Wednesday that France was about to lose its rating "AAA" belied by the rating agencies have helped to cause the greatest gap in the European index of credit derivatives (CDS, credit default swap ) since the 2008 financial crisis.

The head of risk management within a bank based in Singapore said it had cut its credit lines to French banks because counterparty risk they present.

"We cut. The limits were removed from the system.We must obtain authorizations for each case (credit, Ed), "he said, refusing to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.

He did not want to give the names of banks affected by this decision.

"Obviously, we are reviewing (the credit, Ed)," the official said the risk of another bank in Singapore.

"Everything is related to our position in the credit risk of the French banks," said another banker in a Japanese bank.

When asked about this change in perception of Asian banks vis-à-vis the French banks, a spokesman for BNP Paribas said: "We never comment on market rumors."

Crédit Agricole, which publishes its second quarter results in late August, did not wish to comment, while no comment was immediately available from Societe Generale.

"The levels of capital (French banks, Ed) programs are adequate and refinancing in the medium and long term are conducted under conditions quite satisfactory," he responded in turn Christian Noyer, the governor of the Banque de France , which controls the banks.

"Recent developments in equity markets do not affect the financial health of French banks," he said in a statement.

All the European banking stocks were strongly attacked Wednesday, the French and Italian at the top, weighed down by speculation about the "triple A" French and fears of renewed extension of the debt crisis at the Italy and speculation about the plan to help Greece.

SocGen's action was unscrewed due to rumors about its financial strength and refinancing problems, denied by the bank.