The general elections of May 6 did not yield a stable majority in the Vouli, the Greek Parliament, and after more than a week of negotiations President Karolos Papoulias had no recourse but the decree for a new vote.

This political crisis seemed to favor the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) opposite to the austerity measures advocated by the EU and the IMF and supported by a growing fringe of the population. 

But since the new elections, the conservative New Democracy (ND) replicate the advantage over their rivals Syriza.

A survey, conducted between March 15 and May 17, credits the Conservatives of 26.1% of the vote while the Left Coalition would get 23.7% of the vote.

With such a result, the left would have 123 of the 300 parliamentary seats, a premium of 50 representatives being granted automatically to the leading party.

ND could then count on the extra PASOK (Socialist), in sharp loss of hearing for several weeks, which would get 41 seats. A union of these two formations that support the European austerity plan would produce a majority in Parliament.

Last week, an opinion poll gave the advantage to Syriza, took second on May 6, which raised fears of bankruptcy on Public Accounts, and an exit scenario of euro area was considered likely by the European partners.

Syriza seems to pay his unwillingness to serve in a unity government in negotiations with Papoulias.

This change in voting intentions are not satisfied yet the fears of Europe.

Sign of this concern, the British company De La Rue, which prints banknotes for over 150 national currencies, has scheduled an emergency plan to print drachmas in the case where the output of the euro area would inevitable. 

The need to provide in a short time a considerable amount of paper currency could force the Greek authorities to turn to private companies to complete the production of printing national.

EUROPE BOARD OF MULTIPLE SCENARIOS

For now, the European Central Bank (ECB) said strong support to the maintenance of Greece in the eurozone.

"Our preference is clearly in favor of a continuation of Greece into the euro," said Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, who must leave the Executive Board of the ECB at the end of May , adding that the European bank does not "describe in detail" the scenario of an output of Greece. 

The EU trade commissioner, Karel de Gucht, however, announced in an interview published Friday that the European Commission and the ECB worked on various scenarios. This is the first statement by a senior European official confirming the existence of such plans.

"There is one and a half, the risk of domino effect could have existed," said De Gucht Belgian Flemish daily De Standaard. "But today there are, both within the European Central Bank and European Commission services working in emergency scenarios where Greece can not do it. "

"An output of Greece does not mean the end of the euro, as some claim," he added.

Karel De Gucht says he believes that Greece will remain in the euro but emphasizes that the decisive question before the elections of June 17 is whether the ECB will ask what conditions to guarantee the liquidity of banks.

This position was confirmed by a spokesman for the German Ministry of Finance stated that Berlin was preparing for all eventualities.

"For two years we have done everything possible to keep Greece in the euro area (…) The German government obviously has the responsibility to its citizens to be ready for any eventuality, "she said

….. Wednesday …. Christine Lagarde, Executive Director of the IMF acknowledged that the international institution was preparing "technically" at an output of Greece

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The new French president-elect, Francois Hollande, will soon have to hire tough negotiations with its European partners, led by Germany, if he wants to achieve its goal of "renegotiate" the pact of fiscal discipline to include a "growth component" . The handover will take place with Nicolas Sarkozy later than May 15

Without waiting, Mr. Holland should have an exchange on Sunday evening with Chancellor Angela Merkel, as his special advisor Jean-Marc Ayrault. "This is the key to the recovery of Europe, the reorientation of Europe in the direction of growth, in the sense of competitiveness, protection," said Socialist deputy mayor of Nantes, which the name is tipped to Matignon.

Berlin was on his side said on Sunday ready to do so. "We will put to work quickly to add to the treaty a fiscal growth pact for more competitiveness," said the foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, the German press.

The team intends to Francois Hollande music in the coming days promise emblematic of the newly elected through "consultations" with capitals. Objective: To complete the "memorandum" on "Growth Pact" for transmission to partners by the end of the month.

Upon taking office, Francois Hollande will meet Merkel to prepare the informal meeting of EU leaders scheduled for late May or early June, then the top 28 and June 29, devoted to the growth. For Angela Merkel, it is not a question of getting the treaty on the trade budget, signed in early March by 25 EU countries and already ratified by some of them.

This is all the ambiguity of Francois Hollande, who in turn promised to "renegotiate" or "complete" by the treaty of the measures intended to boost growth. The question is which of these terms the focus will be.

"In reality, the rules of fiscal discipline we generally agree," says the AFP near future head of state. "We ratify the treaty and to include it in a balanced package with a real growth component," he adds.

Discussions are possible?

In another near Berlin knows what to expect: in the absence of direct contact with the chancellor, "the German Embassy in Paris did the work to understand our positions." Francois Hollande is confident of having done move the lines: one after the other, European leaders are now in growth a priority, even if their income may differ from his. "The general impression is that, despite disagreements, it is possible to discuss" with the Germans, told AFP Karine Berger, team member of the former socialist candidate who recently visited with economic and financial circles across the Rhine. For her, "the points made by Francois Hollande are very pragmatic, it is to launch projects for growth."

Four areas to boost growth

In fact, the four pillars of its "Memorandum" seem to have been held in a spirit of compromise. This is to finance investments in infrastructure, new energy and industry, by several means: European loans ad hoc financing capacity of the reinforced European Investment Bank, of structural funds and European tax on unused financial transactions.

These proposals, pending in Brussels, "could benefit from a new impetus with the election of Holland," said a European diplomat. "The most complex is the legal form to be taken by these projects," said does one in the entourage of President-elect. Difficult for him to settle for a declaration of intent or a non-binding protocol. "The uncertainty will be lifted as soon as possible, including to reassure the markets," glides Does the same source.

Other controversial issues may resurface later. Francois Hollande has not completely dismissed the idea of ​​giving a greater role to the European Central Bank or to pool debts through Eurobonds, two projects which Berlin refuses to hear.

Read also: The unspoken debate on growth in Europe

This natural disaster had disrupted for months the production chain, in the automotive sector and elsewhere.

Data released Tuesday by the Japan Automobile Dealers, however, show that sales of April 2012, which reached 208,977 units, still 5.9% lower than those of April 2010.

Toyota sales including the Lexus brand, rose 185%, while Nissan was 51.6% and 61.5% of Honda.

Sales totaled 800 million euros over the period while the division "connected home" which includes the manufacture of decoders has successfully stabilized its sales with an increase of 1.5%.

This activity, for which the group wants to find a partner, is expected to reach its goal of returning to breakeven in 2012, said former Thomson. 

The group, a debt of over one billion euros, said it had seen its debt reduced in absolute terms but as a result of an expected cash flow, "net debt to end March 2012 was higher than December 31, 2011. "

Technicolor, however, indicated that all of its first quarter results allow the group to keep its commitments.

"This performance confirms my group's ability to meet its objectives for 2012 adjusted EBITDA of between 475 million and 500 million euros, and the pursuit of a generation a cash flow positive, "said a statement from the CEO Frederic Rose. 

Compete with Motorola Mobility that Google is about to redeem, and the British Pace, Technicolor is a leading manufacturer of "set-top boxes" providing access to Internet, television and telephone.

The group is in talks with potential buyers for its manufacturing of decoders Angers (Maine-et-Loire).

The scheduled shutdown of the last French production site of the former Thomson has caused alarm in the middle of a presidential campaign led by the theme of "Made in France ", and employees of the group expressed earlier this month to express their fears of a dismantling of the company. 

The group, which has already gone through a long restructuring process after a backup procedure in 2009, intends to continue its mutation difficult by the challenge of innovation.

In Paris at 10:01, the CAC 40 was down 0.31% (-9.51 points) to 3,283.00 points. In Frankfurt, the Dax is almost unchanged, while in London, the FTSE gained 0.19%. The pan-European index Stoxx 50 is down 0.59%.

"The markets are experiencing a phase of consolidation after a strong rebound since the beginning of the year and Spanish bond auctions go well Thursday, investors' appetite for risk resume more beautiful, "said Hirokazu Tuihama, a strategist at Daiwa Securities.

Values, the British retailer Tesco, which has announced plans to spend one billion pounds (1.2 billion) to overhaul its operations in Britain to regain market share and reconnect with sales growth, gaining more than 1.6%. 

Accor (1.64%) stands out from other CAC 40 stocks Wednesday morning after the hotel group released a sales growth of 4.5% to 1.371 billion euros in the first quarter, slightly above market expectations (1.358 billion).

The world number two home appliances Electrolux sells more than 3% in early trade after the announcement of a decline of 16.7% of its supplies to the market North America's six major product categories.

ASML is the title back in the same proportions as the world leader in machinery engravings of semiconductors declined to disclose its prospects of orders on the occasion of the publication of its quarterly results . 

In the euro area, investors will monitor the issue of 5 billion euros of debt in two years in Germany before the auctions of two and ten years in Spain and BTAN and a new line on inflation indexed by France on Thursday.

The Swedish Central Bank held rates unchanged while preventing an increase in inflationary pressures would lead to the rise, but not until next year. Other monetary policy decisions are expected during the day in Turkey and Brazil after the publication by the International Monetary Fund of its global economic forecast in which the international organization has raised its forecast for growth while warning against the fragility of the global economic recovery and highlighting the continuing challenges of the euro area.

In China, the fall in house prices continued in March and could lead the authorities to alleviate the measures taken two years ago to reduce speculation in this market , while the slowdown in the Chinese economy continues to be a concern in the markets.

The social network plans to complete the transaction in the current quarter.

Instagram was launched in January 2011 and now has thirty million users. The application allows in particular to apply filters and effects to photos taken with a smartphone.

This acquisition is unexpected since Facebook is preparing an IPO.

"This is an important step for Facebook because it's the first time we acquire a company and a product as accrued," said the Director General General of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg.

The increase is in line with market expectations.

In January, prices showed an increase of 0.2%.

Gasoline accounted for more than 80% of the increase in consumer prices in February, said the Labor Department.

Excluding volatile prices such as food and energy, inflation remains subdued with an increase of 0.1% in February after a 0.2% gain in January.

The February increase is below market expectations (+0.2%).

The price of gasoline jumped 6%, their largest increase since December 2010. They had gained 0.9% in January.

Food prices were flat last month after rising 0.2% in January.

Over one year, the consumer price as a whole jumped 2.9%, as in January.

Excluding volatile, they rose 2.2% after rising 2.3% in January.

The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that soaring energy costs would result in a temporary rise in prices. In the long term, inflation is expected to be more than 2%, the objective of the central bank.

The S & P 500 benchmark index fund managers, rose 0.1% over the whole of last week, posting its fifth weekly advance in six weeks.

The current upward cycle in the S & P 500 is now five months since the beginning of the year, it was up about 9% after being flat in 2011.

Friday's session marked the third anniversary of a lower-end 12, to 676.53, hit in financial crisis. Since then, the index has more than doubled.

"(…) We'll probably have a bit of respite before the expected correction," said Scott Billeaudeau, portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management.

Market participants explain the good performance of Wall Street by the recent series of U.S. macroeconomic indicators better than expected, suggesting that the upturn to the States United gaining momentum.

The latest example, the employment figures for the month of February, with 227,000 non-farm jobs created last month, against 210,000 expected by economists and an unemployment rate remained at , its lowest level in three years, to 8.3%. 

Although the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) said on Friday that Greece had triggered a credit event by enabling legislation requiring all private creditors to take losses, the Greek record ceases, the moment of worry.

The announcement came after the ISDA confirmation that Greece had managed to avoid an imminent default, for the largest restructuring of sovereign debt ever held e.

LOTS OF CASH

"Concerns about Greece will not disappear at once, but the nightmare scenario has been avoided (…)" noted Leo Grohowski , Investment Officer at BNY Mellon Wealth Management. 

Natalie Trunow, which occupies the same position at Calvert Investment Management, believes there could be a setback for U.S. equities in the short term, adding that any such reduction will not be drastic.

"There is so much money in the institutional and individual portfolios (…) long term evolution is increasing," she said.

From a technical standpoint, the indices evolve to a level close to thresholds of resistance. Their crossing or not could be decisive in shaping the market next week, said Chris Burba (Standard & Poor's).

The statements of the Federal Reserve after its decision on interest rates Tuesday (18:15 GMT) will also be well attended, the slightest indication of the Fed's intentions regarding possible new measures to support the economy is likely to give a boost to Wall Street.

Despite improvements in the labor market, a majority of "primary dealers", these intermediaries who deal directly with the Fed, think the Fed will eventually launch this year th a new program of quantitative easing, according to a Reuters poll. 

Compared to a previous survey of this type, the size of the "QE3" however, was estimated to decrease to $ 525 billion, 600 billion against anticipated s last month.

With over a barrel of U.S. crude which settled above $ 100, the data on producer prices and consumer, respectively scheduled Tuesday and Friday , will be well attended.

Among other indicators set next week include retail sales (Tuesday or the index of consumer confidence measured by the Reuters / University of Michigan Thursday).

The two main Spanish unions, UGT and CCOO, announced Friday a general strike on March 29 to protest "against the labor reform and defense of public services", to be held on the eve of the budget in 2012 marked by the austerity.

The unions denounce "unilateral decision" Conservative government "to implement a labor reform and a new drive and fiscal effort," said CCOO in a statement.

By coincidence, this strike will take place at the 100th day of the power of conservative Mariano Rajoy, who took office Dec. 21. His government adopted on February 11 a new reform to make it more flexible labor market, including lower redundancy payments and measures to stimulate youth employment.

The aim is to boost job creation in a country at record levels of unemployment among industrialized countries (22.85%) and particularly dramatic among children under 25 years (48.6%), but the unions believe that the measure will mainly facilitate dismissals. "This reform will not generate employment, it will destroy even more," said CCOO, and "the government itself acknowledges that this year we lost 650,000 jobs."

The government announced last week expect a further rise in unemployment in 2012, which should hit 24.3% of the workforce. But he remains focused on rigor and plans to adopt March 30 a draft austerity budget, as promised to bring the public deficit of 8.51% of GDP at end 2011 to 5.8% in late 2012.

In approving the strike on Friday, the union also announced its "determination to maintain pressure and social workers after that date would alter the reform if the government does not rectify and is not willing to negotiate."

General strikes are rare in Spain, where only five have been convened since the return of freedom of association in 1977. The last was held September 29, 2010 to protest against a previous labor market reform introduced by the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. She had had mixed success, but since many events are held regularly, especially in regions that manage sensitive budgets of health and education and have adopted strict austerity.

Against the new labor reform, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, waving red flags, had marched on February 19 in the cities of Spain. A new day of action is planned this Sunday, with events announced throughout the country. elc-ka/sg/lo

This has lent almost 530 billion euros to banks, bringing to more than 1,000 billion the total amount of capital lent to three years for financial institutions in order to avoid a credit crunch.

If the mutual bank BPCE warned that it would not borrow cash to the ECB, the other three major French banks have refused to say if they had chosen to take advantage of 1% currently offered by the European institution. 

Yet some analysts say they have obtained information on these establishments participating in this exercise refinancing.

And the Morgan Stanley analysts said in a research note published Thursday that BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole had participated.

BNP Paribas "has confirmed that they have participated and made billions," writes Morgan Stanley.

In any event, communication of French banks in this regard calls observers.

"I think it is a blunder from the time when other banks have clearly responded, saying they were not gone, either by saying that there had gone and how much, "Judge Christopher Nijdam, an analyst at AlphaValue. 

For him, the banks had nothing to lose by playing transparency. "They would have won in the shot image," he adds.

"COMING OUT"

For connoisseurs of French capitalism, is the fear of being stigmatized and considered financially fragile that discourages big banks to play the transparency.

Another argument cited the desire to keep a low profile and not be open to accusations of some politicians who accuse them of gorging cash while restricting access to credit say in France.

Another analyst suggests in turn a possible directive of the Prudential Control Authority (ACP).

Contacted by Reuters, nor the French Banking Federation, nor the Banque de France nor Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole have desired s express on the subject. 

For an official of a foreign bank based in Paris, the silence of French banks in this case falls rather within the culture of secrecy and reluctance to transparency of their own.

To this financier, this attitude is all the more "archaic" or "grotesque" they risk no stigma.

Indeed, 800 banks went to the counter of the ECB and those who have formalized their participation in LTRO were not punished the stock market.

Britain's Lloyds Banking Group said on Wednesday he borrowed £ 11.4 billion (13.7 billion euros) to the ECB and the Italian Intesa Sanpaolo has done the same, saying he had borrowed ; 24 billion euros.

French banks would then, according to this official, nothing to fear. 

"It's like a coming-out: you most afraid to announce it but once that's done, you quickly realize that everyone cares," joked it.

Financial analysts also note that this is partly due to LTRO that much of European banks have experienced a sharp rebound in stock.