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No surprises from Frankfurt. The European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday left its main interest rate unchanged at 1%. Earlier, the Bank of England also announced the continuation of its policy rate at 0.5%.

In March the Governing Council of the ECB "will take decisions on (…) a gradual lifting of the measures of liquidity [in support of banks] who are no longer as necessary as in the past," said Jean-Claude Trichet at a press conference.

Long awaited on the subject of Greece, Jean-Claude Trichet has held that the fiscal savings by Greece are "not in the right direction.""We are confident in the ability of Greece to take all actions necessary to achieve the objective" of a deficit below 3% of GDP by 2012, said President of the ECB cash till payday advance . No exceptions will be made for any area countries, "he said.

While Portugal and Spain in turn disturb markets, Jean-Claude Trichet reiterated that it was "crucial" that all countries "respect strictly the exit procedures for excessive deficits."

"According to the International Monetary Fund, the overall deficit of the euro area will rise to 6%", said Jean-Claude Trichet. "The United States will be at 10%, Japan is also at 10%.(…) A more flattering comparison for the euro area! Nevertheless, we show a complete lack of convenience in the direction of monetary policy, "he said. For 6% deficit, he said, a level still remains "unacceptable" and represents a burden.

"SPECIAL – Greece, a challenge for Europe

The International Energy released Friday its monthly report, raising its forecast for demand in 2009 and 2010. The decline in global demand for black gold caused by the global recession would be less strong than expected this year.The IEA now foresees a decline of 1.6% over one year to 84.9 million barrels per day (bpd), while she was counting so far on a contraction of 1.7%.

For 2010, the IEA now expects demand to 86.3 million barrels per day, up 1.7% year on year, while it previously expected a more moderate increase of 1.6 %.

The "risk" that still weigh on industrialized countries, including the continued weakness of demand in the United States is offset by the strength of the recovery in emerging markets.

China and India are the resumption of global demand

"The early indicators better than expected in China and India, whose economies continue to benefit from government stimulus plans" should indeed be the global demand for oil, rising by 3.6% in 2009 to China.The IEA, however, surprised the "apparent discrepancy" between a limited consumption of gasoline and rising sales of cars in the country.

The IEA has estimated that the final price of a barrel of oil reaches $ 76 by 2014, at constant exchange rates, against $ 60 provided in its previous report. Friday, the price was changing between 70 and 71 dollars.

According to the scenario more gloomy global growth of 3% in 2014, oil demand should grow by an average of only 0.5%.

Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world's leading hardware announced it was acquiring for $ 2.7 billion of 3Com, a maker of networking equipment. This puts competing head on with another U.S. giant Cisco, which recently entered the server market.

With this acquisition, HP made two birds with one stone: he enters the market of network equipment, but it also benefits from the strong position of 3Com on the Chinese market. Cisco executives have noted that this deal their own strategy: "While Cisco has a deep respect for all competitors, acquisitions in our industry only confirms the fact that the networks become a platform for all forms of communication and services.3Com had already been targeted last year by Bain Capital and Chinese equipment supplier Huawei without the approval of U.S. authorities.

The CAC 40 ended up 2.14% to 3882.67 points. The index has beaten the previous record meeting dates from Monday and stood at 3859 points. Traders were reassured by the results better than expected giant Intel. Annual profit fell by 5% a year to 1.9 billion dollars. The turnover amounted to 9.4 billion while the company planned 8,8-9,2 billion. The positive trend in U.S. markets, with the Dow Jones now finds himself a short distance of 10,000 points, helped fuel the rise of the CAC 40.

Finally, the Paris market has increased its earnings after the eagerly awaited publication of JPMorgan Chase, the first bank to publish its results. The latter recorded a third quarter net income increased sevenfold to $ 3.6 billion and revenue up sharply.Consequence: banking stocks instead of Paris perform fine performance on Wednesday.

On the macroeconomic side, import prices have emerged up 0.1% in the U.S. last month. The retail sales in September they fell 1.5% from August.

The records have fallen in different markets on Wednesday: an ounce of gold is worth 1070 dollars, the oil back to $ 75 up to its highest in over a year, and the dollar hit its lowest level in 14 months. We must now get 1.4913 dollars for one euro.

The values of the day

In an exclusive interview with Le Figaro, Louis Welsh, CEO of EADS (-1.70%) said that "the Franco-German emerged stronger from the crisis. He showed a new ability to move forward together. French and Germans have agreed on joint proposals, made at European level and the G20.This creates a positive climate for EADS. "

Credit Agricole (+4.12%) announced the repayment of 3 billion euros of deeply subordinated notes (TSS) entered into by the Company of equity of the State under the support plan.

BNP Paribas advance of 3.31%. The Nikkei newspaper said that the Japanese Securities Dealers Association has fined 100 million yen (750,000 euros) to BNP Paribas Securities (Japan) and suspended his membership on current six months. The company has concealed certain information as part of a funding agreement with the Japanese property developer Urban.

EDF rises of 1.53%. The National Assembly noted on its website that the Economics Committee of the Assembly will audition October 27 evening at the future CEO of EDF, Henri Proglio. Members may well ask him about his strategy.

Out CAC 40, Air France-KLM lost 0.83%.According to La Tribune, the company is considering postponing deliveries of planes ordered from Airbus and Boeing to preserve its cash.

Property Regions (-1.09%) announced Wednesday the acquisition of five office buildings, valued at 267 million euros and increased its equity.