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Boeing has not ruled out Tuesday the possibility of reducing the price of its bid to build 179 tanker aircraft for the U.S. army, a contract estimated at 25 billion dollars (20 billion euros) it argument once again his great European rival EADS.

U.S. Air Force is currently reviewing applications from two groups, due by July 9, and may request further information.

This is the third time that the Pentagon conducts the tender to replace its fleet of KC-135, whose average age is around 50 years.

The contract is for several years among the priorities of capital projects for the Air Force.

The government usually requires a modified offers and if so, "we will respond," said Dennis Muilenburg, head of Boeing's weapons industry, at the summit organized by Reuters on the aviation and defense Tuesday in Washington.

"Our intention is to continue to offer a winning bid," he said in response to questions about the possibility of a reduction of the bid price at the Pentagon."Beyond that, I can not make specific comments until we have no specific requests of our customers."

The tanker is "a national priority and Boeing is ready to respond by taking into account the priority," he added.

Guy Hicks, a spokesman for the North American branch of EADS, has reacted to these remarks by explaining that an "interactive process with the customer" was committed.

"We have submitted a convincing proposal that corresponds to our trade policy," he said in an email. "We have the most capable tanker in existence.Point. "

The Air Force plans to issue its final decision later this fall, theoretically no later than December 20.

Dennis Muilenburg said that Boeing should decide on a possible revision of its offer price based on the interests of all its stakeholders.

"We will make decisions financially responsible," he added.

The first tender for the contract to supply ships failed in 2004 after a scandal that led to prison the number two arms purchases from the Air Force and a former chief financial officer of Boeing.

In 2008, the Pentagon awarded the contract for 179 aircraft to a consortium of Northrop Grumman and EADS, but the decision was overturned after an appeal by Boeing.

APRR has benefited in the first half of the resumption of road traffic, especially HGVs, which illustrates the improvement in economic conditions.

The net number four European sector, which has already published in July sales up 6% in the second quarter, up 16.3% to 174 million euros and EBIT of 5 , 1% to 422 million, as the EBITDA (+5.1% to 631 million).

Traffic, measured in number of miles traveled is up 3.1% over the first half of 2009.

Traffic car (VL), which had been assigned to the first quarter by multiple snowfalls in France, has benefited the reverse in the second quarter of prolonged disruption to air transport and rail in April. Eventually, it rose 2.6% over the first half of 2009.

The truck traffic (PL) has benefited from improved economic and confirmed its recovery with an increase of 5.8% over the first half of 2009.However, there remains 12% lower traffic recorded in the first half of 2008.

"The summer so far confirms the recovery of HGV traffic since the beginning of the first quarter, and the positive trend of development of light vehicle traffic," the group notes in a statement.

APRR estimated that the increase in toll revenue resulting from traffic recovery in 2010 will allow a further improvement in EBITDA margin (67% off construction at S1 and 68% in 2009).

Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône, a subsidiary of construction group Eiffage and concessions, is currently the subject of a bid withdrawal Eiffarie initiated by the joint venture between Eiffage and Australia's Macquarie has a concession at the network APRR Privatization of French motorways in 2005.

The President of the General Council of the Saone-et-Loire, the Socialist Arnaud Montebourg took the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) to try to block the exit of the Exchange APRR, because the privatization of the concessionaire would be integral.

Before the publication of these results, the action APRR closed Friday at 54.0 euros (+0.15%), which translates into a market capitalization of around six billion euros.

Wall Street opened lower after the announcement of an unexpected rise in weekly unemployment registrations, which rekindled investor concerns about the state of the U.S. labor market on the eve of the release of employment figures of the month July.

The Dow Jones lost 0.54%, to 10,622.61 points, the S & P 500, 0.63%, to 1120.16 points, while the Nasdaq Composite yielded 0.57%, to 2290.54 points.

Entries weekly unemployment rose in the United States during the week to July 31, at 479 000 460 000 cons (revised from 457,000) the previous week and 455,000 expected by economists.

Investors are more anxious with respect to the U.S. labor market as unemployment remains high, which is a major obstacle to economic recovery, however, that the latest macroeconomic statistics were considered disappointing.

Viacom fell by 0.29%, after publishing a turnover less than anticipated due to a decline in sales of DVDs, despite a better than expected quarterly profit.

By contrast, News Corp. jumped 4.55%, the media group has been beneficial for its fourth fiscal quarter due to strong performance of its cable networks and advertising revenue growth of its newspapers.

Several groups have urged the French government this week to catch up on overdue payments estimated at two billion euros due to a failure of a computer system.

On Friday, the giant European aerospace and defense group EADS, which published its interim results, has come to be inscribed on a list of providers dissatisfied with the state which already Safran, Thales and Dassault Aviation.

According to several speakers, these delays are attributed to the introduction of payment system inter Chorus, which records problems since late 2009.

On 12 May, the French Ministry of Defence said he was determined to catch up on by the end of the summer.To date, some 3.8 billion euros of commitments had been paid since January 1, or 55% of the amount paid to manufacturers last year at the same time.

"For the defense sector as a whole, delays (current) is estimated at around two billion euros," said Friday a spokesman for the grouping of French aerospace industries (GIFAS).

A cell involving two other organizations have asked the government to act, "he added.

Dassault Aviation said on Thursday waiting for payments equivalent to 200 million euros.For Safran, the addition amounts to some 270 million.

"We are also concerned," said Friday Hans Peter Ring, chief financial officer of EADS, in conjunction with the presentation of interim financial statements of the company, without giving further details.

A spokesman of the Directorate General for Armaments (DGA) stressed that the system delay payments Chorus affected several departments.

According to the Ministry of Budget, the Chorus system was designed by the German specialist software and SAP software.

An SAP spokesman declined to comment Friday and said that this case should be reviewed by the French government.

Nokia reported a sharp drop in earnings in the second quarter, increasing a little more pressure on his ailing CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

The Finnish group, which manufactures mobile phones sold in three in the world, proceeded to the quarter two profit warnings and a reshuffle of his leadership when he barely keep pace with Apple in the smartphone.

We learned this week that Nokia sought a replacement for Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who has spent more than half his life in the company.It could even be removed from duty as this month, The Wall Street Journal.

A Nokia spokesman declined to say after the publication of results if the Director-General retained the support of the board of directors.

Aged 57, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who is married to a longtime advocate of Finnish group, has called for an end to the rumors about his departure.

"There have been many rumors about my position on myself, in recent weeks and it is not good for Nokia and should be completed one way or another," he said on TV channel CNBC.

At 13:15 GMT, Nokia shares gained 3.2% to 7.215 euros while the Stoxx 600 index of European technology stocks took 1.5%.

"The issue of change management is more important for the course of action that results in time," said Thomas Langer, an analyst at WestLB.

Competition intensifies

Earnings per share excluding exceptional items fell 27% as expected to fall to 0.11 euros per share.

Nokia had warned June 16 that sales and profits of its mobile division would be lower than what was previously anticipated, the group has been forced to sharply reduce its prices to meet competition from the iPhone Apple and phones using Google's operating system.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who is known as "OPK" within the group, said that Nokia was counting on the N8, its first phone using the new Symbian software, which should give users a superior experience for all other smartphones until been manufactured by the company.

"OPK said that the N8 will bring the best user experience ever experienced with Symbian.This is good but what about this experience unmatched by the competition? That's what matters and we do not think it will be enough, "said Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Gartner.

Nokia said its operating margin on its mobile phone division fell to 9.5% in the second quarter and warned that this trend may continue in the third quarter.

In this case, the group expects a non-IFRS operating margin of its mobile division and service of between 7% and 10% the third quarter of 2010.Nokia also expects that its market share by volume remained stable in 2010 compared to last year.

"What is slightly worrying is the margin guidance for Q3 (…) Now, everything depends of the fourth quarter. Competition is intensifying," said Kulbinder Garcha from Credit Suisse.

The N8, which should be commercialized at the end of the current quarter, will compete with Apple's latest iPhone and google-phones "Samsung and Sony Ericsson in the fourth quarter, which is strategically with the Christmas holidays.

Nokia shares tumbled about 20% since the beginning of the year, sharply underperforming the index of technology stocks which gained 7%.

The action goes off in BP down Monday after the detection of a new oil spill near the well damaged in the Gulf of Mexico, traders reported.

In the morning, BP is losing more than 5% while the FTSE 100 index of London Stock Exchange gives him 0.4%.

BP engineers detected an underground oil spill near the well that could be damaged due to the new dome containment set up last week, had informed U.S. authorities on Sunday.

In a statement released Monday morning, BP makes no mention of these leaks and said that the tests are continuing on the site.

Unemployment rose again in France in May, according to Ministry of Economy and job center.

The number of jobseekers in category A, that is to say, without work and actively seeking employment rose 22,600 persons (+0.8%) last month, to 2,699,600, after an increase of 0.6% in April.

Compared to May 2009, the increase is 7.1%.

By adding job seekers engaged in a Pool (Class B and C), the number increases by 0.4% in a monthly basis in May (16,700 people) for an increase of 9.4% year on year another.

"In late May 2010, in France, 3,942,900 persons registered at employment center were required to make positive job search (including Dom 4,182,800), including 2699.600 were unemployed (class A) and 1,243,300 exerted a reduced activity, short or long (B and C) "indicate the department and job center in a joint statement.

In France, the number of jobseekers Class A increased 0.8% for men (+7.3% yoy) as for women (+6.8% YoY).

For categories A, B, C, the increase was 0.4% for men (+10.4% yoy) and 0.5% for women (+8.4% YoY).

Among youth under 25 years, the number of unemployed rose from 0.8% in group A compared to April, but continued to decline over one year (-1.1%).For categories A, B and C, the number increases by 0.3% over one month and 2.4% over one year.

For over 50 years, unemployment has increased by 1.3% in group A (+18.9% yoy) and 1.4% for the three main categories (+17.9% on year).

The number of long-term unemployed – registered at employment center for a year or more – rose 0.9% in May for categories A, B, C with a mass increase that is over one year (up 30.4% ).

Tickets for the public service employment in categories A, B and C increased by 1.3% from April and 3.9% over one year.

The outputs of the same categories at the same time have increased 5.3% on a monthly basis and 11.8% a year.

Job offers collected by the employment center fell 3.7% in May in France but are up 12.8% YoY.

American Airlines Continental Airlines and United Airlines (UAL) announced Monday their merger for approximately $ 3 billion to form the world's largest airline at Delta Air Lines. This fusion is done by exchange of shares with no added bonus, according to the statement released by United Airlines. Under the terms of the agreement, shareholders will receive 1.05 share of Continental United Continental title for each, valuing Continental at about $ 3 billion during Friday.

Following the merger, shareholders of United will hold approximately 55% stake in the merged entity and those of Continental 45%.The two companies expect annual synergies of about 1 to 1.2 billion by 2013 and the new company should reach an annual turnover of 29 billion dollars.

The transaction, which must still be approved by competition authorities, should be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2010. The new airline will be called United and based in Chicago. The aircraft will fly under the colors and logos of the company Continental, with the name United. The group will be led by current CEO of Continental, Jeff Smisek. Glenn Tilton, CEO of UAL will present non-executive chairman.

World number one passenger

If the merger is approved, the new company will rank first among world as a carrier of passengers to Delta Airlines.

Together, the two groups serve 370 destinations in 59 countries.They carry on board their aircraft more than 144 million passengers per year. "The two companies are complementary," last week estimated Jared Harckham, an analyst at consulting firm SH & E specialist, told AFP. "United is well positioned in the Pacific, Chicago, Washington, Denver and in California, while Continental is well established in New York, South America and the Caribbean," he stressed. The two companies had already negotiated a reconciliation two years ago, which had failed.

Since the economic crisis has reinforced the concentration scenarios in the aviation sector. The last important approximation goes back to 2008: Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines have merged to form the current world number one.