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At two months of the meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the G20, Paris, France is stepping up efforts to convince its partners, including emerging markets, the need to control the prices of raw materials. The fight against the volatility of agricultural prices is one of three priorities for the French presidency of the G20, with the reform of the international monetary system and taxation of financial transactions.

Bruno Le Maire has made two key visits this week to Moscow and Brasilia. The ministerial meeting in Brazil was "a success," says one in the entourage of Le Maire. The Brazilians were very reserved in respect of the French proposals now seem reassured. "Bruno The Mayor has made clear that the control would only financial manipulation in the market for agricultural products," said the Brazilian minister, Wagner Rossi."We were surprised to see Brazil, strongly supports greater regulation in the markets," said a member of the French delegation.

Transparency of financial markets is one of three priority reforms to limit price volatility, according to experts from FAO, OECD and World Bank, who wrote a report on the issue for the French presidency of the G20 .

Very sensitive because it addresses the controversial role of speculation in rising commodity prices, this subject has been left to finance ministers of the G20. It will be discussed next week in Washington.

Unilateral decision

In Moscow, the ministerial discussions focused on another sensitive issue: the unilateral restrictions on exports.August 5, Moscow's decision to freeze its wheat exports to the fires and drought caused exceptional sharp rise in prices on international markets. This reaction is not concerted, which goes against the principles of free trade the WTO has been criticized by Paris. France hopes in the G20, impose a mandatory consultation ahead of this kind of decision in order to prevent abuse, and to take measures to protect poorer countries against rising prices.

On this issue, Bruno Le Maire is sparing no effort, he will have met four times his Russian colleague, Elena Skrynnik. "Moscow agrees on the principle of cooperation in upstream, on the protection of the most vulnerable," says a close case.France, which claims to have joined Brazil and Russia to its cause, must now convince another heavyweight G20: China, world's largest producer of wheat. "Beijing is far from conducive to transparency on stocks," says Michael Porter, Director of Agritel, risk expert on agricultural markets.

In its global offensive, France has discovered another restive country to its arguments: Australia, great agricultural power. "Australia is the country most recalcitrant!" Said a negotiator. "For them, the volatility of agricultural prices is a non-issue! Bruno Le Maire there will soon travel to Sydney to achieve its purpose? Nothing is excluded …

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The U.S. futures are well oriented on Friday at midday, heralded an opening up. The Nasdaq 100 future appears up 0.35% and the S & P500 future ahead of him by 0.39%. The future of Dow Jones gained 0.57% to 12,322 points.

An optimism that should be confirmed at the opening, whereas recruitment remained high and accelerated in the U.S. in March, allowing the unemployment rate to decline for the fourth consecutive month. This fell to 8.8%, its lowest level since March 2009 (8.6%). The market was expecting an average 8.9% stability. The U.S. created 216,000 non-farm jobs last month when observers were waiting an average of 190,000 new posts after 194,000 (revised) in February.

Economists suggest that new posts are developing in many sectors of the U.S. economy, which suggests a general recovery.

Already on Wednesday, the firm ADP unveiled the net creation of 201,000 jobs in the U.S. last month. Moreover, the weekly claims for unemployment benefits came out lower at 400,000 during six of the last eight weeks.

As for currencies, the euro traded at 1.4096 dollars in early afternoon. Oil-type light sweet crude odds higher at 107.28 dollars a barrel. A barrel of Brent is 117.71 dollars.

War of the exchanges is relaunched

ICE and Nasdaq have officially announced Friday it had sent a joint offer for the acquisition of NYSE Euronext for $ 42.50 per share, paid in cash and stock, e gives a total of approximately 11.3 billion dollars (7.98 billion euros).This proposition therefore shows a premium of 19% over the offer from Deutsche Boerse.

Logitech should loosen the opening. The title forfeits nearly 20% in pre-market trade. Yesterday, the technology group warned on its revenue and operating profit 2011.

Berkshire Hathaway should again be observed after the resignation of David Sokol, the most likely successor to Warren Buffett.

Office Depot will revise downward its results for fiscal 2010, due to a reduced tax credit of 80 million.

BP could benefit from a recommendation by JPMorgan.The broker believes that the title is "seriously downgraded," and reiterated his recommendation to "overweight" value.

Boeing confirmed Friday an order for 15 737 aircraft made by compage Turkish Airlines for more than $ 1.2 billion based on list price. The aircraft manufacturer said that this order includes delivery of 10 737-800 and five 737-900ER.

It's the domino effect. Twelve days after the earthquake that hit Japan, manufacturers of electronic goods continue to feel the shock wave. On Tuesday, Sony announced the suspension of production in five of its factories, which were not affected by the earthquake or tsunami. But they are now facing power cuts, shortages of components or raw materials.

Laurent Roussel, CEO of Panasonic France, announced that four Japanese factories in the group had stopped their production. "Our sites themselves have suffered very little damage, but the infrastructure does not work anymore," says Laurent Roussel. A situation similar to that known by Sharp. "Some of our plants are occasionally arrested, because of power cuts. Transport is also affected.Priority is given to people and help, "says Patrick Chardin, the CEO of Sharp France.

From last week, Toshiba had suspended part of its production, not to weigh on consumption of electricity. Under these conditions, no one will risk a prediction on the consequences of such interruptions to production. While large groups have a clear picture of damage to their own plants, they lack information on their suppliers. Last dreaded effect: a collapse in domestic demand. "The Japanese manufacturers are also very powerful in their domestic market online payday advance. If domestic consumption were to fall, it would be a major blow, "said Patrick Chardin. To complicate matters, the Japanese groups close their financial year to 31 March.The proximity of maturity contributes to a more prudent.

International impact

Despite Japan's importance in the global electronics production – Archipelago weighs 20% of LCD or 16% of memories – nothing to suggest that Europe will be affected by a shortage of TVs or computers. Most of these products are transported by boat, which involves traveling time of around five to six weeks. For now, manufacturers believe that it is still possible to make up for delays in shipping their products by air. With consequent higher prices.

"The worst disaster that exports would fall. This would have the effect of a second earthquake in Japan, "warns Lawrence Roussel, who is most concerned about rumors of possible radiation problems of products. "Nothing is further from the truth, he says.Especially since the products currently on the shelf have left Japan there are more than a month! "Nevertheless, some manufacturers have already put in place procedures to control the output string to reassure their customers.

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It was expected that the two "small" U.S. operators Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile (subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom) have joined forces to resist the pressure of the two "big", Verizon Wireless and AT & T.Bombshell: the giant AT & T, the number two market heavyweight 95.5 million customers, who captured the number four, T-Mobile for $ 39 billion.

AT & T should thus take the place of leading U.S. mobile phone he had lost to Verizon in early 2009, posting 129 million subscribers and a turnover of $ 80 billion in Mobile after the merger .

If AT & T, formerly incumbent U.S. broke out in 1984 by the court to give birth to "Baby Bells", and finally restored, starts the mega acquisition is that it is itself threatened by the emergence of New players: Net giants Apple and Google.

Faced with the explosion of mobile Internet created the success of smartphones, iPhone in mind, the telcos are obliged to invest massively scale their networks, but does not affect revenues. AT & T was the exclusive distributor of iPhone in the United States from 2007 to February 2011 made the bitter experience: back to the boom in mobile internet traffic, its congested networks had broken down in cities like San Francisco and New York, then being told the boss of AT & T that the iPhone was his "worst nightmare".Traffic on the network of AT & T has increased 8000% in four years and by 2015 it should be 8-10 times higher than in 2010.

"The race to size"

"The problem of operators today is to be paid for the huge investments they are forced to make their networks to support the explosion of data traffic," said Virginia Lazès, associate director of the bank Bryan Garnier. The answer is the race for size. It can rebalance their magnifying powers face the giants of the Net. On the one hand, with 130 million customers, AT & T will carry more weight in discussions with Apple, which often resemble a standoff.On the other hand, being larger, its business model becomes more relevant because it can generate synergies in investment and marketing. "

To address this bottleneck networks, AT & T has begun the deployment of 4th generation network (known as LTE). The acquisition of T-Mobile will save him time. "With additional capacity and frequency network, we can better meet the current requirements of our customers, build for the future and help achieve the objective of the President (Barack Obama) America connected a wireless and high- flow, "commented the CEO of AT & T, Randall Stephenson.

"The regulator should not oppose the FCC not to this level because there is a political will to accelerate the transition to 4G mobile broadband.The United States would indeed catch up in 2G/3G mobile compared to Asia and Europe, "said Stéphane Dubreuil, associate director of the firm Sia Council. A reverse pattern of France, where the regulator has pushed early 2012 arrival of a fourth operator, with Free? Do not forget that the U.S. has a plethora of regional operators (Alltel, TracFone, U.S. Cellular, MetroPCS, Cricket, Jump Mobile, Dobson Cellular, etc.). "In fact, the U.S. market was ultraconcurrentiel returns to normal and the French market was oligopolistic becomes competitive," says Virginia Lazès.

The NYSE will start Thursday's meeting in sharp rebound, while Japanese engineers are trying everything possible to cool the reactors at Fukushima and avoid a major nuclear disaster. The Dow Jones climbed 1.09% to 11,738 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 advancing 1.33% respectively to 1274 points and 1.40% points to 2653 points.

Thursday's meeting, however, promises once again to be febrile given the uncertainties surrounding the nuclear disaster in the archipelago. Wednesday on Wall Street, the Dow Jones dropped 2.04% to 11,613.3 points and ended at its lowest since Dec. 31.

The VIX volatility index, also called "fear index," jumped over 20% Wednesday and flew more than 45% since the beginning of the week.And according to analysts at PFG Best "it is not impossible that the Vix found record levels at the height of the financial crisis, the index could well triple.

In Tokyo on Thursday, the Nikkei closed down 1.44% moderate, affected by the surge in the yen and suspended the efforts of Japanese technicians near the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. For the first time since the nuclear crisis, the Japanese army helicopters dumped in the morning about 30 000 liters of water reactors 3 and 4 of the plant. The results of this operation are not yet known.Moreover, to support the Japanese economy, the Bank of Japan injected 6,000 billion yen (about 54 billion euros) Thursday on the money market, bringing to 34,000 billion yen, its total contribution since Monday.

Inflation at the highest

On the currency markets, the euro continued its rebound against the dollar on Thursday, while the yen was changing to levels not seen since the Second World War against the greenback, buoyed by speculation of remittances in Japan following the devastating earthquake on Friday. 111H00 to Paris, the euro bought 1.4053 dollars against 1.3906 late Wednesday, its highest in four months.

On the macroeconomic front, the meeting was punctuated by the publication of numerous U.S. indicators.The weekly jobless claims were initially declined more than expected in the United States during the week to March 12, at 385 000 401 000 cons (revised) the previous week, said Thursday the Labor Department.

Higher oil prices is being felt in the United States on consumer prices, which have experienced in February their largest increase since June 2009, according to figures released Thursday by the Washington Department of Labor faxless pay day loans.

The industrial production fell unexpectedly in February cons, largely due to mild temperatures that have weighed on the sector of services to communities, according to official statistics released Thursday.According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, production fell 0.1% after an increase of 0.3% (revised from -0.1%) in January.

Guess and FedEX published

The values ​​listed after the close Fifth Third Bancorp has repurchased $ 280 million contract warrant issued to U.S. Treasury for the bailout of banks.

The mail group FedEx (4.91% to 89.47 U.S. dollars) Thursday raised its forecast for revenue and margin for the current quarter and next, an announcement that pushed its way in the exchange pre-market trading. "We expect a continued positive trend increases turnover and margins in the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2012," said Alan Graf, chief financial officer.

Guess (-9.07% to 39.89 dollars) posted net earnings rose to $ 105.4 million, or $ 1.11 per share in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 29, against $ 87.9 million , or 93 cents per share last year.

By contrast, Qualcomm (4.36% to 52.70 dollars) said its deliveries should not be affected by events in Japan, noting that the supply and production within the company was sufficiently diversified in this such situations.

Renaissance Re Holdings (-1.77% to 62.77 dollars) said the floods in Australia will have a negative impact 30 to $ 190 million on first quarter results 2011.The earthquake in Japan should also have a significant effect on the accounts.

For his part, Rollins (1.01% at 19.01 dollars) has announced that its subsidiary, Orkin had opened a new office in Shanghai.

Also note, Apple (2.55% to 338.42 dollars) lost 4.5% Wednesday after an analyst from JMP Securities has degraded the value of the first degradation by an analyst since October. 90% of analysts remains to buy Apple. But, clearly, the group's growth could be affected by events in Japan and greater competition, especially in the segment of mobile phones, experts say Aurel BGC.

ON Semiconductor announced that its turnover in the first quarter 2011 could be affected by the situation in Japan at 2% to 4% of its turnover, due to disruptions in logistics.

The big French companies have practically recovered their health dazzling pre-crisis! The combined profits of the forty groups of ACC and reached 82.15 billion euros (1), up 83.5% over 2009! "These results are good, although still lower than 15% for those records in 2007," said Pierre Sabatier, in PrimeView. Sales of these major groups have rebounded, approaching their pre-crisis. Golablement, the 40 stars of the Paris stock exchange recorded a turnover of EUR 1.26974 trillion, up nearly 7% over 2009. Companies have restructured and reduced their debts much since the crisis began."They benefited in 2010 of an enabling environment, financing conditions very favorable from a raw material prices relatively low and a recovery in global growth driven by emerging countries," Pierre Sabatier analysis.

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The year 2010 was marked by a return to better fortunes of banks and insurance companies, but auto manufacturers. Other companies have also created surprise. "About half of large listed announced results that exceeded analysts' expectations, however high," says Claudia and Panseri at Societe Generale.If the telecom industry or certain values (Vallourec) were somewhat disappointed analysts, pharmaceutical (Sanofi-Aventis), the consumer goods sector (Danone, Essilor, L'Oréal), luxury and technology companies (Alcatel ) did better than expected. "For some groups, it is merely a technical rebound. But others have found, or exceeded their profits before the crisis. This is the case of the automobile (Renault, Peugeot), steel, construction (Saint-Gobain, Lafarge) or luxury (LVMH, PPR), "said Christian Parisot at Aurel BGC.

Companies will be pampered and invigorated their shareholders by donating about 40 billion euros in dividends. "The crisis of the past, but has left its mark. Businesses remain cautious and even if they have a lot of cash, they invest little for the moment, "said Pierre Sabatier.Especially since the year looks a bit more complicated than 2010. Certainly, the consensus of analysts expects an increase of 11% of the results of the ACC in 2011.

"Sectoral Differences"

But these forecasts are somewhat compromised by the soaring prices of raw materials and oil, which if continued could weigh on consumer spending. "For now, we're not too worried because global growth is buoyant, particularly in the United States. This should allow companies to increase their turnover and profits, "said Claudia Panseri. "But if at the end of the second quarter, oil prices remain too high, companies could face new difficulties," she nuance. For some economists, margins, now at their highest, might suffer. Corporate profits should be less homogeneous."There will be more pronounced sectoral differences. Companies that can raise their prices to cope with rising commodity prices should fare better than others, "suggests Christian Parisot.

(1) These results were calculated using for EADS, Alstom and Pernod Ricard, the earnings estimates of analysts.

The champions of profitability are in the health and luxury

Health, luxury and drink: this is the ranking of the most profitable of the CAC 40. With a net margin of over 17%, the pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis is by far the head of the most profitable companies in the benchmark index of the Paris Bourse. Despite competition from low-cost generic products, the blockbuster drugs that markets the group remains a fantastic source of profit, even if it tends to decrease from year to year.That's why Sanofi-Aventis accelerates acquisitions in the biotechnology sector. Activities located far upstream of the research cycle that will not suffer competition from laboratories specializing in the exploitation of patents has fallen into the public domain. It responds to this concern that the takeover bid of 20.4 billion currently on American society Genzime.

"The other champions of profitability are all protected by strong brands and recognized internationally, said Pierre-Yves Gauthier, strategist of financial analysis firm AphaValue.The strength of the brand is even considered an asset, it is a guarantee of high profitability and sustainability of future earnings. "There is nothing surprising in these conditions to see in the list of the groups with the most comfortable margins of LVMH, the world leader in luxury, L'Oreal, which remains a true superstar on the cosmetics market, but Pernod Ricard, which has to focus on the segment of premium spirits. These are sectors that benefit from the excellent image of France abroad.

Technological advance

"The common point of companies like LVMH, L'Oreal and Pernod Ricard, is that their high level of profitability does not only depend on their ability to protect their margins. It also relies on the strong business growth in emerging countries but also in the U.S., where business goes.That's what investors look primarily, "said Francois Mallet, head of research at Kepler Capital Market Action. In another area, Essilor International shows very strong margins (12% on net income) based on its technological lead in glasses.

Largest provider of benefits of CAC 40 with 10.5 billion euros in profits in 2010, Total is not the group's most profitable CAC 40 in terms of profit margin. It appears, however, among the "oil majors" the better off the Old Continent, far ahead of the British giant Anglo BP or Royal Dutch Shell. With 7.48 billion euros in net profit in 2010, BNP Paribas ranks among the most profitable banks in Europe. The first French bank has cleared the crisis, since the record profits achieved in 2007 is outdated.

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Red, always red and even red. That should expect the CAC 40 on Wednesday for the third straight session. On both days, the Paris index has lost 2.59%, equivalent to just over 100 points. The figure of 4,000 points is dangerously close. The CAC 40 index opened down 0.14% to 4044.53 points.

The London Stock Exchange is changing down from 0.29% to 5979.65 points and the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange lost 0.32% to 7295.12 points.

Closed Monday because of "President's Day, Wall Street has followed the general trend Tuesday dropping 1.44% to 12,213 points. On Wednesday morning, Asian stock markets mostly recorded a third consecutive decline, losing about 2.5% since the beginning of the week.The reason? Libya and its political crisis, which is growing, and whose power is crumbling oil markets worried about the world.

On the macroeconomic front, consumer prices fell 0.2% in January, monthly changes, but still up 1.8% year on year, INSEE said on Wednesday.

At 12 hours, will be published index prices in the supermarket in January.

For the euro area are expected new orders in industry in December 2010 (11:00).

Finally the United States, are scheduled home resales in January (16 hours) and the intervention of the President of the Philadelphia Fed Charles Plosser, on the economic outlook (19:30).

The euro starts again from the front

On the currency markets, the euro found colors against the dollar, gaining 0.23% to 1.3686 dollar.

In morning trading, a barrel of light sweet crude for April delivery gained 4 cents to 95.46 dollars.That of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery has appreciated by 22 cents to $ 106.

Total, which announced Monday that it repatriated the majority of its expatriate employees in Libya, said Tuesday that its production there was suspended in part because of the violence in the country.

The letter rogatory to Switzerland on the existence of bank accounts belonging to the three Renault executives suspected of espionage has not worked for one of them, according to Le Canard chains.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a double warning to Sanofi-Aventis for a contamination problem on a German site and for gaps in reporting of side effects in the United States.

A U.S. federal court issued Tuesday a decision in favor of Vivendi in greatly reducing the number of complainants and accused him of having misled shareholders about the state of its finances.

Natixis finished with losses

Natixis: 6.13% to 4.38 euros – greater in the SBF 120

Natixis bank has returned to profitability in 2010, generating a net profit of 1.732 billion euros against a loss of 1.388 billion a year earlier, thanks to lower the cost of its illiquid assets at a lower cost and risk with tight control of expenses.

Maiso his mother, BPCE, will finalize contributions to reimburse the state, the balance reached $ 2.2 billion by the end of the first quarter, said Wednesday Chief Executive Perol during a conference call in conjunction with the presentation of results.

Accor: -1.08% to 34.82 euros

The hotel group Accor said on Wednesday 2010 net profit of 3.6 billion euros, primarily due to the non-cash impact of the demerger of the group, against a loss of 282 million in 2009, and declared will accelerate its divestiture program for 2011-2012.

Rhodia: -2.66% to 21.37 euros – the largest drop SBF 120

Rhodia announced Wednesday that it doubled its dividend to 0.50 euros for 2010, achieved a net profit in 2010 "record" of 259 million euros, against a net loss of 132 million the previous year.Turnover rose 29.6% to 5.23 billion euros.

CNP Assurances: -0.06% to 15.81 euros

The CNP Assurances has grown by 4.6% in net income in 2010 to 1.050 billion euros, offsetting a slight decline in turnover by 0.8% to 32.3 billion euros.

Technicolor: 3.13% to 5.28 euros

Technicolor (formerly Thomson), specialist equipment and services for media and telecommunications, has won the tender launched by France Telecom for its next generation of boxes in France, according to Le Figaro.

Nexity: 4.44% to 33.40 euros

The developer Nexity said target for 2011 an operating margin (OMC) more than 8%, excluding charges related to his project Nexity Tomorrow, after a year 2010 marked a decline from its weaker than expected sales and a return to profitability.An earnings conference is scheduled Wednesday at 8:45.

Imerys: +0.25% to 49.98 euros

The Anglo-Australian mining group Rio Tinto said Wednesday it received a firm offer of Imerys, a group of industrial minerals for its production subsidiary Luzenac talc, set at $ 340 million, or about 250 million euros.

APRR: +0.04% at 52.02 euros

APRR is a continued growth in its turnover in 2011 under the double impact of rising prices and increased traffic, heavy head.

Transgene: -12.84% to 12.90 euros

Transgene announced that the Swiss laboratory Roche had terminated the license agreement that bound him to the French company to co-develop the TG4001, a therapeutic vaccine against cervical cancer.

Spir Communication: 3.27% to 41.32 euros

Spir Communication is planning an EBIT profit in 2011, after regaining the year 2010, as predicted, a quasi-equilibrium.

After market, it was the turn of Ipsos, Dexia, Vallourec, and OL Toupargel of Group E to submit its annual results, interim results and Vilmorin.

Also note that the bid for Axel Springer Seloger.com ends on Wednesday.

The maker of Smirnoff vodka and Guinness beer is poised to become the specialist of Turkish raki. The British giant Diageo puts his hand on Içki Mey, the leading Turkish spirits, after paying 1.5 billion euros from TPG Capital and Actera.

This group, who performed last year a turnover of 355.6 million euros, controls 80% market raki, the national famous alcohol with anise, and 65% of that of vodka. By seizing Mey Içki he coveted for several months, Diageo strengthens the distribution of its own brands in the Turkish market where it previously occupied fourth place with 4% market share of spirits, to Pernod Ricard (3% ).

"Turkey is an attractive market for Diageo and developed with strong growth in gross domestic product, says the CEO of Diageo, Paul Walsh.The acquisition of Mey Içki improves our position in the spirits market with high growth. " A market, boosted by the emergence of the Turkish middle class, which is still dominated by raki and alcohol cheap.

Rebalancing strategy

After several years of strong volume growth, they should nevertheless settle for 2015. "Diageo is betting on the transfer of consumption to international brands as they become more accessible," says Jeremy Cunnington, senior analyst at Euromonitor. The various taxes, which penalize hitherto imported international brands, should gradually decline by 2018. Diageo hopes to take full advantage with its broad portfolio of brands.

The acquisition of Mey Içki also part of a rebalancing strategy in emerging countries.During its last fiscal year (2009-2010), 67% of the volumes still came from the United States and Western Europe. It is precisely in Europe – particularly Greece, Ireland and Spain, where sales fell 13% in the first six months of fiscal year 2010-2011 – the slowdown has been most marked. "While growth in sales of Pernod Ricard was twice that of Diageo's first half is due to the lack of presence of the latter in emerging countries, China and India in mind," says Jeremy Cunnington.

Diageo, who had preferred to leave India after the Asian crisis in 1998 gave way to Pernod Ricard, which now owns 8% of the market. Diageo is now trying to regain a foothold in the region.He has just returned to 24% stake in the spirits of the Vietnamese leader (Halico) after taking control late last year of a heavyweight Chinese (Quanxing). China will become this year … second country, ahead of France, Pernod Ricard.

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A formula that has rained, but that leaves open many files. The roundtable, chaired by Nicolas Sarkozy after his walkabout in the aisles of the Salon of Agriculture, was rather well received by participants. "He did not demagoguery and was really aware of what was happening in the farming community," said Florence Verheyden-Valade, breeder of bison in the Creuse. It was part of the panel of invited farmers, three women and four men, "representatives of all sectors and territories", according to Franck Louvrier, communications adviser at the Elysee. There was a producer from another sheep of the Puy de Dome, a pork producer from Vienna, a wine of Herault, a grain of Loiret and a breeder of Charolais in the Nièvre.

Discussion without taboos

For more than 90 minutes, the Head of State has listened in turn and answered their questions.Environment, rising raw materials, distribution, cost of labor, many topics were discussed openly and with details. Asked about the cost of labor by Patricia Rebillou, producer of strawberries in the Dordogne, Nicolas Sarkozy said: "We reduced by more than three euros hourly cost of seasonal workers, to 12.81 euros per hour to 9, 43 euros. Adding that "this reduction in social security employer had already cost the state 500 million euros" and it was not possible to go beyond. "Nicolas Sarkozy has memory and is familiar with his records," commented Michel for his part Hamel, a milk producer of the Channel.The latter was part of the 400 farm representatives who attended the roundtable held in Area 2000, a large room in the mezzanine in Hall 1 of the animals at the Porte de Versailles.

On the environment issue, widely discussed on Saturday, the audience applauded the head of state when he said the poster campaign of ecological association FNE. "It is hurtful, humiliating, totally cons productive in some ways shocking," said Nicolas Sarkozy. "You are loved by the French more than you think as evidenced by the success of the Salon of Agriculture," he said at the farmers.

Several decrees

In a goodwill gesture, the president did not come in without his wallet. A decree recognizing the activity of methane on farms is released this Saturday.

In addition to reducing the depletion of farmland in France – at a rate of one department every seven years – another decree was issued on the topic, believing that the show is moving files around the corner. It concerns the establishment of advisory boards of county farmland. A new structure must give notice before any sales of land into building land. Transactions will now be taxed. The tax proceeds will fund innovative facilities for young farmers.

"However, Nicolas Sarkozy said nothing about the case of photovoltaics, which allows farmers to reduce their cost of production," complained Jean-Pierre Fleury, Secretary General of the Federation Nationale Bovine and rancher in the Morvan. Another disappointment for farmers, lack of clarity of Nicolas Sarkozy vis-à-vis supermarkets."While the president has insisted on a better distribution of value added over the entire chain, but was not specific enough in its intentions," said Guy Vasseur, president of the APCA (Permanent Assembly of Chambers of agriculture). "We will continue to help you be more competitive and regulate the prices of agricultural commodities. I believe the future of French agriculture, growth, development and its contribution in the foreign trade of France, "said Nicolas Sarkozy. "A frank and direct dialogue," summarized the Youth President Jean-Michel Schaeffer, leaving the space 2000. "The lyrics is good, it acts better," summed up his side Beulin Xavier, president of the FNSEA.

In Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, Nokia-Microsoft agreement is central to the questions. Stephen Elop responds.

LE FIGARO. – Google has criticized the alliance with Microsoft, saying that the marriage of "two turkeys never created an eagle?

Stephen Elop. – Our two groups have complementary products and a balanced portfolio of assets. Together, we have great facilities, well-finished products and strong brands in operating systems for mobile phones. It's the same in services with a side maps, location services and guidance on the other search engines, the range of services for the Xbox game console and productivity tools.Overall, we need the full range.

Why not have chosen Google's Android?

We would have encouraged the emergence of a duopoly in smartphones, with a side of Apple and Google each other. For in recent years, Apple has been between 15% and 20% of the market and Android between 60% and 70%. That would have recalled the development for the PC industry, where margins of manufacturers have become weak. An alliance with Google would have been detrimental, ultimately, to our ecosystem.

What is the financial part of the agreement with Microsoft?

On the one hand, we will buy Microsoft's Windows operating system Phone for our future smartphones. This allows us to reduce our investment in research and development. We will reduce our operational expenses. On the other, Microsoft will give us a lot of cash. This amount is counted in billions of dollars.We can increase our marketing efforts and our search for the next generation of products.

Your competitors are paying 10 to 15 dollars a Windows Phone 7. How much will you pay?

We are the leading manufacturer of mobile phones in the world. So we got an attractive price.

Will you continue to use Symbian OS for Nokia smartphones for entry-level?

We intend to use Windows phone in as many products as possible. In India, where a mobile phone costs $ 3 to purchase, we will also have a proposal for a Windows phone. In addition, we have our own solutions which will benefit from our investments

Why did Nokia shares fell on the announcement of the alliance with Microsoft?

We created a lot of ambiguities and uncertainties for investors personal loan for poor credit.How long the transition period going to last? What will happen pending the release of our first products on Windows 7 Phone this year? In addition, we have announced substantial job cuts, without specifying the number, because we must provide these answers to the staff before the unveiling. All these issues have caused uncertainty.

What do you want to change the culture of Nokia?

Change the way we work. First, division heads will be responsible for the results of their activities and bureaucracy will be abolished. Now, Jo Harlow, for example, is responsible for the results of the division of smartphones. This was not the case before. The heads of subsidiaries have more power without needing to refer all the time in Finland. We want to improve the elements of the corporate culture.The company was too slow in its decision making. We must think with more humility. We deliver more and more mobile phones, but the market situation is changing very fast. We must be more humble in our decision making and how to talk to our customers

What is your involvement in the Internet Tablet?

We MeeGo operating system, designed with Intel, which was adopted by a German partner for an Internet tablet. Mobile World Congress, other companies should announce. For Nokia, we have multiple options. We can take advantage of our agreement with Microsoft or operate our own operating systems.With MeeGo, we could see the emergence of other products such as GPS navigation devices.

How many do you have Microsoft stock?

I had a substantial stake in Microsoft, because of my former office. During the thirty days following my departure, I did not have the right to sell those shares, for regulatory reasons. Then, once I was right, I initiated a sales program. I achieved 60% of the shares I own. But as soon as we started discussions with Microsoft, I stopped the sale because I own proprietary information, unknown to investors.

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