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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.

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.

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.

Registrations of new cars in France fell 1.2% in June on a year to $ 240,587, announced the Committee of French Automobile (CCFA).

The month of June were 22 working days, against 21 last year.A comparable number of working days, the decline in sales stood at 5.7%.

Of the first six months of 2010, registrations in France stand up 5.4% on a reported basis, to 1,212,492 units, and 3.7% in comparable number of working days from the same period of 2009.

Sales of French brands fell 7.9% in June, while those of foreign brands rose 7.8%.

Sales of passenger cars by PSA Peugeot Citroen fell 5.6% in June, while those of Renault were down 1.0%.

Registrations only Dacia (Logan, Sandero and Duster) almost doubled (95.8%), while those of Renault fell 11.1%.

Sales of the Citroën show a decline of 7.3% and Peugeot were down 4.1%.

Flights arriving and departing from Ireland were canceled between 1200 GMT 6:00 ET Tuesday, May 4, due to the arrival of a cloud of volcanic ash dense, particularly from Iceland said on Monday the Civil Aviation Authority of Ireland (AAI). The British aviation officials have also decided Monday to shut down part of the Scottish airspace, a measure that should be extended on Tuesday in Northern Ireland.

The decision to cancel flights "is based on the risk to passengers and crew adrift south of the ash cloud caused by northeast winds," said the Authority. Civil protection in Reykjavik Iceland, contacted by AFP said they had observed no change in the activity of the volcano which is still Eyjafjöll eruption.It only spits ash and small quantities, "she said.

In contrast, France does not expect to close its airports, said Tuesday Jean-Louis Borloo, Minister of Sustainable Development and Transport. "There are no plans to close in France, nor do I believe in the whole of Western Europe, the current state of the weather. There is no fear to have," assured the minister on France Inter.

The cloud of ash has cost 1.26 billion euros

About the management of air transport at the height of the crisis in April, the minister said the authorities had acted on behalf of the "safety of passengers, not on behalf of the precautionary principle. "We did not use the precautionary principle but simply dangerous to the safety of passengers. This was done with great caution," he said. "If it happens again, we now have the means of analysis.We now know a little better understanding of this type of situation, "he added.

For Chantal Jouanno, Secretary of State for Ecology, airports could be closed "if necessary. But it is too early to tell." "It depends on the concentration of particles in clouds," she said on LCI: "On the last episode, what we have seen, contrary to what the experts told us at the outset, namely that no reactor could not go through this type of cloud, in reality, if there is a level of tolerance. "

The paralysis in air traffic in Europe following the eruption of the volcano, which lasted nearly a week in April, caused a loss of 1.26 billion euros for the airlines, according to Association International Air Transport Association (IATA), and caused chaos on transport on the European continent.More than 100,000 flights have been canceled and then over eight million passengers were stranded.