More that the relief of the margin of 33 to 35

As to the time of Columbus and the conquistadors, the Spanish bank BBVA may is pleased to have rediscovered the America. With profits up 35 in the United States and the Mexico and 37 in Latin America against 11 in the Iberian Peninsula, the growth of BBVA is indeed widely drawn by the new world. To the point that the United States-Mexico area became the first contributor to the results of the group, which represents about 40, rather than the Spain-Portugal, which no longer provides that one-third of the profits. What comfort shareholders Italian clerc pitch which saw BBVA fight for months to conquer BNL is to blow by BNP Paribas. But while the whole area America now conducts half of profits and the movement will grow with the recent purchase of two Texas banks, BBVA well keep an eye on the European market and its potential opportunities. Which would allow to keep a balanced geographical positioning. The second Spanish bank has clearly means with billions of euros of readily available equity and return on own funds of 36.

Hop

The future is always more popular than the past by investors. The improvement of the performance of STMicroelectronics in the second quarter has thus been overshadowed by perspectives more mixed in the third. More that the relief of the margin of 33 to 35.4 in the spring, the market considered the possibility of the see to roll back a point this summer. In a sensitive activity that semiconductors, the slightest tremor in one way or another, it is true, the significant financial implications. The increase in sales of 15 in the last quarter thus translated by an increase of nearly 25 of the margin and increasing by six of the net. A slowdown in the pace of sales can therefore have a significant impact on the result. But the Franco-Italian group table more now than on an increase of 1 to 5 this quarter instead of a previous objective of 2 to 8. Which led observers to question the sustainability of the positive effects of the restructuring made in recent months. It will be necessary so that the message of optimism given by the new President, Carlo Bozzoti, materializes more that STM is the confidence of the markets and clears 23 lower that it displays in the stock market since the beginning of the year.

Clutch error

Mountain roads are always difficult even for experienced drivers. Faced a difficult market for two years, PSA has more and more difficult to make à faire good figure in a context where when sales are stalled, profits IFWU reverse. If the commodity boom is an easy scapegoats to explain the poor performance of the group, it does not, far from it, all of the fall of the results. The weakness of the volume of vehicles sold and the poor quality of the product mix, due to the increasing weight of small models, weighing nearly twice on the operating margin as the prices of steel or aluminum. But the horizon is cleared and Jean-Martin Folz has been reduced to repel 2007 hopes of recovery that he foresaw until then for the second half of 2006. The announcement of a plan for relief for next fall is hardly more encouraging for investors. Peugeot-Citroen already has a cost effective basis which leaves little room for improvement. Only a strong performance by sales of new models could restore tone to profits. Otherwise the value returned to the level of the spring of 2004, an underachievement by 33 from the ACC, is unlikely to leave quickly forward.