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The growth of manufacturing in the euro area picked up slightly in July, thanks to the dynamism of the sector in Germany, show the final results of the monthly survey Markit.

The PMI final Markit purchasing managers stood at 56.7 against a flash estimate to 56.5 and 55.6 in June

So the tenth straight month that the index is above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction in activity.

"It seems that the improvement is reflected in the PMI in the euro area in July is almost entirely due to an acceleration of growth in Germany," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

The component output rose to 58.7 in July, up slightly from the initial estimate of 58.3 and 57.2 higher than the figure for the month of June

The employment rose to 51.1 against 50.4 in June, the highest since May 2008, again due to improved labor market in Germany.

Motorola profit and publishes a quarterly sales above Wall Street expectations, greeted by a rise in its pre-market action.

The American group as it prepares to split into two operations in early 2011, has achieved the second-quarter earnings of $ 162 million or seven cents per share, against 26 million (one cent per share) for the same period the last year.

Excluding items, earnings per share came to nine hundred, while analysts were expecting EPS of eight hundred according to Thomson Reuters I / B / E / S.

Turnover fell to 5.414 billion dollars against 5.497 billion in the second quarter of last year, but it exceeds the market consensus, which gave 5.19 billion.

Motorola shipped 8.3 million mobile phones in April-June, 2.7 million smartphones equipped with the Android operating system developed by Google.

Analysts were expecting deliveries of 8.13 million units with 2.69 million smartphones by seven analysts polled by Reuters.

In the first quarter, Motorola had shipped 2.3 million smartphones for a total of 8.5 million handsets shipped.

The action group has risen by 3.5% in pre-market trade to $ 7.95.

The euro briefly cut its losses against the dollar on Friday but has subsequently resumed its downward trend, while seven out of 91 European banks have failed this test of strength which they were submitted.

The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) announced that five Spanish banks (Civica Cajasur, Unnim, and Espiga Diada), a Greek bank (Atebank) and Germany's Hypo Real Estate had not been able to maintain a ratio of Tier 1 financial stability of at least 6% in the worst case scenario used.

After an increase to 1.29 per dollar, the euro fell to 1.2845 dollars (-0.43%) to 4:25 p.m. GMT.

Last month fears about the debt crisis of the euro area and its effects on banks in the region had led the euro to its lowest level since 2006 at least $ 1.19. Since the European currency has recovered to slightly above the threshold of $ 1.30 earlier in the week.

Wells Fargo, the fourth U.S. bank, on Wednesday posted a profit decline in the second quarter, but losses on commercial loans and consumer loans recede from the first quarter.

The bank reports a profit of 3.06 billion dollars (2.4 billion euros), earnings per share (EPS) of 55 cents, against $ 3.17 billion, or 57 cents a year bpa prev.

Analysts on average forecast EPS of 48 cents by Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S. It was not immediately clear whether this compares to 55 cents bpa announced by Wells Fargo.

Citigroup reported Friday a net profit of 2.7 billion dollars for the second quarter, down 37% year on year, due to lower revenue in the banking business.

Per diluted share, net income stood at 9 cents.

In the second quarter of 2009, net income was set at 4.28 billion dollars or 49 cents per share.

Analysts on average expected a profit of 5 cents per share excluding exceptional items for the second quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.It is not known if the EPS of 9 cents can be compared to the consensus of 5 cents.

The bank, which the U.S. government is a shareholder, said its credit losses are down for the fourth consecutive quarter.

In pre-market value fell by 2.2% to 4.07 dollars.

Boeing said Friday it has formally responded to the call for tenders for tanker aircraft, the U.S. Air Force.

The aircraft proposed by Boeing is to replace 179 KC-135 U.S. Air Force Eisenhower era.

The Boeing said to have the ability to produce at a rate of production will be required.

The European EADS has submitted his proposal on Thursday.

Sanofi-Aventis is planning acquisitions in the United States, including one or two that could cost him at least $ 15 billion, told Reuters a source familiar with the matter.

Speculation that laboratories such as Biogen, Genzyme and Allergan may be targets of the French pharmaceutical group drove up the price of these companies at the NYSE.

In the afternoon in New York, the action took 4.4% Biogen, Genzyme 5% and 6% with Allergan stock market valuations of approximately 13 billion, 13.5 billion and 18 billion dollars respectively.

The Board of Directors of Sanofi met in Paris this week and discussed several options for acquisitions, but no decision has been taken on potential targets, said the source told Reuters.

The latter, which is not authorized to speak to reporters, spoke on condition of anonymity.

In turn, a spokesman for Sanofi, the world number six from the pharmacy, simply stated that "the group's policy is to not comment on market rumors."

The Bloomberg had initially reported that Sanofi was preparing to acquire a U.S. company worth at least $ 20 billion.

GOOD STRATEGIC DECISION

Faced with competition from generic drugs, the group is actively looking for potential targets, which should enable it to find new sources of growth.

"In the big pharmaceutical companies, everyone is watching and there are whole departments that work on potential acquisitions," says Thierry Verrecchia, analyst at Raymond James.

The acquisition of a U.S. biotech is an excellent strategic decision, observed Fabian Wenner, an analyst at UBS.

"They need essentially biological expertise in antibodies," he says, adding that, therefore, Biogen and Allergan may be on the radar screen of Sanofi, while Amgen Bristol-Myers Squibb or appear to be too large pieces to swallow for French.

Sanofi announced Wednesday the acquisition of American TargeGen for some 560 million dollars (458.5 million euros), an operation designed to strengthen the group's positions in oncology.

The title Sanofi closed Friday at 47.06 euros, down 2.42%, giving a market capitalization of nearly 61.7 billion euros. The action has underperformed the DJ Stoxx sector index (-1.17%) and the CAC 40 (+0.25%). She has lost 12% since the beginning of the year.

"The share price decline as investors worried about the price. But if the acquisition was accretive, it would not be that bad," observes Fabian Wenner.

The Paris Bourse was hesitant about opening a day after a fall of 4% and in anticipation of several indicators in Europe and the United States.

The CAC 40 is expected at the end of this session, last month, its first quarterly loss after four consecutive quarters of increases. At this stage, the ACC leaves approximately 13.5% over the quarter.

Around 9:20, the index gained 0.32% to 3444.0 points.

STMicroelectronics, highest jump, takes 1.29%, followed by Sanofi-Aventis, which earns 0.85% after the announcement of the acquisition of the American TargeGen.

The bank, apart Dexia (-0.07%), bounce on the eve of the repayment of 442 billion borrowed a year ago to the ECB by the European banks.Societe Generale gained 0.81%, 1.22% Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas 1.26%.

France Telecom sells 0.92% after the lowering of recommendation from Goldman Sachs to Neutral cons buy.

Other major European markets advance marginally, London and Frankfurt gained 0.32% 0.33%. As for the European indices, the EuroStoxx 50 wins and 0.49% Eurofirst 300 rose 0.14%.

Euro recovers, trades at about 1.223 dollar after going under $ 1.22 the previous day.

U.S. light crude oil off again on the rise as to approximately 76.2 dollars a barrel after falling more than two dollars Tuesday.

The Icelandic economy is technically out of recession but the risk remains and the financial sector is still subject to uncertainty after a court decision on loans related to exchange rates, said the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF said it expected that the recovery of the Icelandic economy takes its momentum through the rest of the year, but said a decision by the Supreme Court of the country presented a number of risks .

"The stability of the system is not in jeopardy because of the coverage of government guarantees," said Mark Flanagan, Director of the IMF mission in Iceland.

"However, the decision (on loans) could have an impact on public finances, the pace of liberalization of capital control and other aspects of the program."

The highest Icelandic court ruled June 16 that some loans related to exchange rates of foreign currencies were illegal. Borrowers would therefore have no obligation to repay the principal of their loans as the Icelandic currency.

This decision poses a risk that creditors may large losses for the Irish crown plunged after the collapse of the Icelandic banking system there nearly two years.

Pernod Ricard announces the distribution of an interim dividend for FY 2009-2010 far exceeds the total dividend distributed during the 2008-2009 fiscal year, a year when the group had to make savings because of the crisis.

Its board of directors decided to pay an interim dividend of 0.61 euro per share against a total dividend of 0.50 euro for the previous year.

The deposit will be posted Friday, July 2 and payable Wednesday, July 7, 2010.

A spokesman for the group declined to given any indication on the total dividend which shareholders could expect for the year 2009-2010.

The producer of Pastis has already announced to shareholders that he wanted to resume his practice before the crisis, which was to distribute a cash dividend representing one third of its net current.

Ricard Pernod has reported a significant rebound from its sales for the first three months of 2010 and will announce its annual results on September 2nd.