10 April 2010 - Global Markets Review

Good Morning Ladies & Gentlemen,

-than-expected!

You can be forgiven for thinking that the start of this week's Newsletter is missing; after all, it is impossible to start any sentence with "-than-expected!"

But I'm off on another 'soap-box' moment Friday because we have had the "better-than-expected" corporate figures out of the US and now we have the "faster-than-expected" retail sales growth!

What Next? "Deeper-than-expected" decline once it all goes pear-shaped again?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are back at staggering levels a year after the so-called 'worst recession in history'.

Now I ask you a very simple question this morning; "from the depths of that so-called recession 12-18 months ago, have global economics and financials improved enough to warrant the 90% growth since those lows?"

Absolutely not and whilst we may have witnessed a paradigm shift in the fundamentals - meaning that what we used to consider as strong indicators to the global economy are no longer important - you cannot escape the fact that stockmarkets have gotten way, way ahead of themselves.

It used to be those fundamentals that drove markets - now it appears to be CNBC, Bloomberg and anything US-Financial-Media-related.

I see the US driving markets up as high as they can realistically go, grabbing their parachutes and then bailing out (every pun intended) before the rest of the world takes a nose-dive.

The coming week is going to be more than interesting in terms of watching how much further the US try to stick the boot into Greece and Europe in general.

As if the problems in the US were not serious enough to need addressing, each and every American financial person has suddenly become an 'expert' on Greece and are advising anyone stupid enough to listen that Greece is heading for the toilet and Europe can do nothing to stop it.

Hang on a minute my American counterparts; I'd say the same thing about the US to be honest but I'll give you 3-5 years before you and your currency flows down the pan yourselves!

But here's the rub. America is 'owned' by a select group of people in finance and if anyone suffers while they grow richer - tough!

These group of 'select people' running the US of A make money when there is financial turmoil. If society is at peace and prosperous, these people do not do as well.

So it is beneficial to these parasites to have unending trouble and the rest of the world be damned. The rest of the world are not part of these elite 'chosen' and their suffering is just their own bad luck.

China is doing so well economically and emerging so fast as the global financial power-house, it has to be taken down a peg or two to slow it down - at whatever costs necessary.

This is especially true since the Chinese have chosen not to be taken in by the truly chosen - the most recent select group of US money-men's scheme did not hurt China enough. China are too smart for their own good, and must be destroyed (even if it means starving a hundred million or two of them in the process - they are not the chosen, so who cares?).

The American Dollar is indeed "invincible", in that these select financial people firmly believe that they have an ace up their sleeve that no other nation in the history of Man ever had.....

The power to make war on any and all other nations!

If America wants its currency stronger again at any time in the future, all this parasitic group of bankers/financial politicians have to do is to invoke the unholy alliance clause, and make war in some significant choke point on the world.

Investments in US government securities would flow into the US again, even if this financial investment benefits only these elite group of people.

The US think that printing money faster is the key.

Printing money faster will accelerate the demand for a replacement reserve currency and I cannot for the life of me understand why they cannot see this.

A worldwide economic shock with the dumping of 2 trillion US Dollar from the Chinese, Russians and Japanese would immediately get the world community to replace the US Dollar.

The US Dollar is NOT invincible and neither is America. The sooner these idiots stop believing the tales they are spun on CNBC, Bloomberg and the like, the better chance they have of stopping their country going down that pan!

Off of my soap-box with pulse relatively low still!

A topic that I wanted to touch on this week stems from a meeting that I had Wednesday.

I was sat with a young couple, filling in various application forms and on some of those forms they were asked to divulge the following:

"Net annual salary; bonuses or gratuities; rental income; investment income; pension income; housing allowance; holiday allowance; any other forms of income".

The young couple asked why all of these questions were being asked and quite simply Ladies & Gentlemen, I wanted to outline to you all that any regulated financial entity worth its salt today, will ask to know where the funds are coming from. This is in accordance with global anti-money-laundering guidelines.

It's not a vase of banks and investment companies being 'nosey', they need to justify where the money has come from. It is not their role to ascertain whether you have paid tax on it or not, but to filter out potential money-launderers.

As an example, a young man earns 60,000 Euro a year and has no other visible means of income. He wants to invest 300,000 Euro in one go and then save 5,000 Euro a month. That would be an automatic 'flag' to any viable bank or investment company because if he is investing 5 years' worth of salary and is planning on saving 100% of his salary each month, what is he living off of?

It may seem bizarre Ladies & Gentlemen, but on average I get two cases each month where the potential client simply cannot justify where their source of income is coming from and alas, unless they are able to do so, they cannot use our services.

A classic example of this has been seen this week once more with Switzerland and them not abiding by the global anti-money-laundering regulations.

Swiss regulators are probing whether investors are buying life insurance to hide undeclared assets from tax authorities as the dispute over banking secrecy widens.

"We are checking selectively if there is a need for regulator action," said Alain Bichsel, a spokesman for the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, known as Finma, in Bern. "We are warning of the risk."

The concern is that so-called wrapper products, sold by insurers through units in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Singapore, are being used to conceal untaxed money. Finma's review comes a year after Switzerland agreed to cooperate with international regulators to avoid being blacklisted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Swiss Life Holding AG doubled premiums from life policies that mask underlying bank deposits and client identities to about 5 billion Swiss francs ($4.7 billion) last year. Baloise Holding AG in Basel reported a similar increase in sales at its Liechtenstein life insurance unit.

An insurer that accepts premiums "without checking whether it comes from untaxed money makes itself guilty of assisting foreign tax evasion," said a partner at a Zurich- based law firm, referring to the insurance wrappers. "It is nothing but old wine in new bottles," he said.

When a client buys a wrapper, the beneficial ownership of the assets is transferred to the insurer while the funds often remain on the balance sheet of private banks. Insurers invest the premiums through advisers and clients receive benefits tied to the performance of the underlying investment. Taxes are minimized or deferred because life insurance policies are classified as non-income producing assets.

Swiss Life Chief Executive Officer Bruno Pfister said the country's biggest life insurer doesn't want its wrapper business to be open to tax evaders.

"We take Finma's warning seriously," Pfister said in a March 30 interview from his Zurich headquarters. "We see it as positive to try and curb this misuse."

Baloise says its Liechtenstein unit, which had life insurance premiums of 1.6 billion francs last year, asks foreign clients for a written declaration on the tax status of assets.

"There are quite a lot of clients we don't accept," said Jan de Meulder, head of the Basel-based insurer's international corporate division, in a March 18 presentation.

The examination of sales practices at Swiss insurers comes as France and Germany step up the search for tax cheats and tighten rules on life policies. Swiss insurers may open themselves to lawsuits when they provide wrappers to French and German citizens seeking to evade taxes, according to Finma.

Private banking clients are buying wrappers in the wake of the Swiss government's agreement to hand over account data on UBS customers to the US Internal Revenue Service to settle a dispute over suspected tax evasion. Zurich-based UBS is Switzerland's largest bank by market value.

Swiss Life and Baloise say their cross-border businesses benefitted from the Italian tax amnesty, or scudo fiscale. The exemption, extended until April 30, allows Italians to apply for pardons in return for paying a fine of 5% to 7% of undeclared assets. Investors also may opt to take out life insurance and leave the assets at their private banks instead of repatriating them.

Demand for wrappers increased in the past year as clients search for low-tax investments, said Alfredo Gysi, chief executive officer of BSI Group, the Lugano, Switzerland-based private bank owned by Assicurazioni Generali SpA, Europe's third-biggest insurer.

"The move toward tax compliant models has increased the attractiveness of those products," Gysi said. "Lower taxes are a part of it."

Total cross-border life insurance premiums in Ireland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, which became the three biggest providers in Europe because of flexible regulations and low corporate taxes, were about 30 billion Euros ($40.2 billion) in 2008.

"A lot of assets are hidden behind insurance wrappers," said a director at London-based Tax Research LLP, which campaigns for greater tax transparency. "Don't tell me this market isn't big and isn't vibrant for any other reason than tax evasion. I'm sure it is."

While there is no law requiring insurers to ensure that client money has been declared, they have a legal obligation to fight money laundering, organized crime and the financing of terrorism, said the managing director of the Liechtenstein insurance association.

"People are definitely trying to look for alternative locations for money, and alternative mechanisms to hide money," Tax-Research LLP said. "I have very serious doubts whether a lot of insurance companies have anything like an adequate system in place to ensure that they are really able to manage this."

UBS, which has life insurance units in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Ireland, checks the source of premiums and the legitimacy of the business purpose, said spokesman Serge Steiner. The company doesn't support activities that "serve the avoidance of tax liabilities," he said.

Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland's second-largest bank by market value, applies "a thorough due diligence with regards to account openings and handling of client assets," said a spokesman for the Zurich-based company. "However, no bank has the obligation nor the possibility to know a client's tax situation," the spokesman said.

This is why I have always advocated using highly regulated offshore centres such as Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man and whilst it may be a little 'painful' in administrative terms when it comes to answering a raft of questions on various application forms, I am fully behind this approach because this is what enables these locations to be fully transparent and not go down the same route as Switzerland; in turn, attracting unwarranted tax attention.

Long may these strong regulatory controls continue.

So the next time you are completing a form for opening a bank account or some other form of investment, rather than complain about the many questions contained within the form, consider it positive that the company is following the regulations to the letter and this is always a good thing in my book; this is what keeps the regulated offshore centres running and not following the routes of Switzerland and Luxembourg with all of the problems and challenges they are facing.

On to the numbers on the boards this week:

US Markets

How the US did this week .....

US Summary US stocks rose, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly above 11,000 for the first time since September 2008, as growth in wholesale inventories added to signs the economy is strengthening.

Chevron Corp. led the Dow's gain after saying its oil refineries returned to profitability. Dish Network Corp. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. rallied at least 3.5% on analyst upgrades. Equities also advanced as European officials said they're ready to bail out Greece if needed, assuaging concern a default by the nation will stifle the global economic recovery.

The S&P 500 gained 0.7% to an 18-month high of 1,194.37 at 4 p.m. in New York and rose 1.4% over the past five days for a sixth-straight weekly gain, its longest streak in a year. The Dow increased 70.28 points, or 0.6%, to 10,997.35 and reached as high as 11,000.98.

US stocks rose Friday as retailers rallied on "faster-than-estimated" (I covered this earlier) sales growth, helping the market recover from an early slump triggered by concern over Greece's debt crisis. The S&P 500 has climbed 7.1% this year and the Dow is up 5.5%. This week's gains came after the government reported the biggest growth in jobs in three years on April 2, while pending home sales unexpectedly rose.

The Dow ended less than three points below 11,000, a level it hasn't closed above since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Although the index crossed above and below 11,000 in 1999 and 2000, it didn't "definitively" rise above it until 2006!

A gauge of energy companies had the biggest gain in the S&P 500 among 10 industries, climbing 1.1%. The group has had the best start to the second quarter, rallying 4.1%, followed by financial stocks with a 3.8% advance.

Friday's advance in energy equities came even as oil and gasoline retreated. Natural gas surged 4.1% after dropping for three days.

Chevron said its oil refineries returned to profitability during the first quarter as margins earned from processing crude into fuel widened. The second-largest US energy producer advanced 2.4% to $79.50, its biggest gain since February.

Atlas Energy climbed 20% to $38.25, the most in a year, after saying it will transfer an interest in Marcellus Shale assets to a wholly owned affiliate in a transaction valued at $1.7 billion. Range Resources Corp. also advanced, adding 4% to $50.28.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world's biggest producer of the precious metal, increased 0.8% to $41.29. Gold for June delivery climbed 0.8% to $1,161.90 an ounce, its highest price since December, gaining as an alternative to currencies.

DISH, the second-largest satellite TV provider, rallied 3.5% to $21.77 after UBS boosted its rating to "buy" from "neutral," citing competitive and economic improvements. Abercrombie & Fitch advanced 6.6% to $49.98 after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the shares to "neutral" from "underperform."

J.C. Penney was added to the Goldman Sachs "conviction buy list" and had its shares raised to "buy" from "neutral." The stock advanced 1.7% to $31.52.

Intel Corp. gained 1.1% to $22.55 after Canaccord Adams Ltd. said the chipmaker probably saw better-than-expected demand for notebooks last quarter and raised its share-price estimate to $27 from $25.

Jacobs Engineering Group surged the most in the S&P 500, as CNBC reported speculation private-equity investors may take over the engineering company. The shares climbed 7.5% to $47.61.

S&P 500 companies will post a 30% profit growth for the first quarter, according to analysts' estimates. Alcoa, which fell 3.2% for the second-biggest drop in the S&P 500 Friday, is scheduled to post results on April 12.

Constellation Brands dropped 2.5% to $16.43 after forecasting profit excluding some items that trailed the average analyst estimate.

European Markets

What has been happening in Europe this week .....

Europe Summary European stocks rose, sending the Stoxx Europe 600 Index to the highest level since September 2008, amid speculation that a bailout for Greece is imminent and as stronger-than-estimated retail sales in the US fueled optimism about the economic recovery.

Greek banks rallied. Givaudan SA surged 5.4% after the world's biggest maker of flavors and fragrances said sales rose. Petroplus Holdings AG climbed 7.8% after saying it expects to end the quarter with a positive net cash position.

The Stoxx 600 gained 3.46, or 1.3%, to 269.74. The measure is up 0.8% this week, a sixth straight advance and the longest winning streak in a year. The index climbed 6.2% in 2010 as central banks maintained record low interest rates and the European Union agreed a contingency rescue plan to help prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt.

National benchmark indexes gained in all but one of the 18 western European markets Friday. The UK's FTSE 100 Index advanced 1%, France's CAC 40 added 1.8% and Germany's DAX rose 1.3%. Luxembourg's LuxX Index slipped 0.5%.

GERMANY

German stocks rose, with the benchmark DAX Index posting a sixth straight weekly gain, as the country's exports climbed the most in eight months and expectations grew a bailout for Greece is imminent.

Henkel AG led gains as Commerzbank AG upgraded shares of the maker of Loctite glues. ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany's largest steelmaker, increased as copper led a rally in metals prices.

The DAX rose 1.3% to 6,249.7, snapping two days of declines and bringing this week's gain to 0.2%. The measure climbed 3.3% in the first three months of 2010, a fourth straight quarterly increase, as the European Union agreed a contingency rescue package to help Greece cut Europe's biggest budget deficit and the Federal reserve pledged to keep interest rates low for an extended period. The broader HDAX Index also gained 1.3% Friday.

German exports, adjusted for working days and seasonal changes, rose 5.1% in February from January, when they fell 6.5%, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said Friday. That's the biggest increase since June 2009. Economists forecast a gain of 4%, the median of nine estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed. Imports rose 0.2% from January.

Henkel climbed 3.3% to 41.06 Euros as Commerzbank raised its recommendation on the stock to "add" from "hold."

ThyssenKrupp gained 1% to 26.56 Euros. Copper rose for the first time in three days after the Dollar fell against the Euro, improving the appeal of commodities as alternative investments. Aluminum, lead, nickel, tin and zinc also gained on the London Metal Exchange.

E.ON AG and RWE AG advanced 3.1% to 28.34 Euros and 2.6% to 67.84 Euros, respectively. German power for delivery next year posted the biggest weekly gain in 11 months as higher near-term costs spurred traders to revalue longer- dated contracts.

Symrise AG, the world's fourth-biggest maker of scents and flavors, gained 3.4% to 18.69 Euros. Competitor Givaudan SA said first-quarter sales rose to 1.07 billion francs ($1 billion) from 976 million francs, boosted by increasing demand in developing markets.

VTG AG jumped 8.9% to 12.10 Euros as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. added the company that offers rail car hire to its "conviction buy" list.

Nordex SE surged 5.4% to 8.91 Euros after the company said it has signed a framework agreement with the municipally owned Swedish utility Skelleftea Kraft AB to supply a total of 118 turbines in the N100/2500 series.

FRANCE

France's benchmark CAC 40 Index climbed 72.08, or 1.8%, to 4,050.54 in Paris, advancing for the first time in three days. The broader SBF 120 Index gained 1.7%.

Aeroports de Paris rallied 3.22 cents, or 5.2%, to 64.78 after CA Cheuvreux raised its price estimate for the operator of the French capital's Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports by 11% to 72 Euros.

ArcelorMittal gained 22 cents, or 0.7%, to 34.07 Euros. Xstrata Plc has approached Macarthur Coal Ltd. shareholders Posco and ArcelorMittal about a potential rival bid for the Australian company, the Australian Financial Review reported, without saying where it got the information.

Air France-KLM rallied 43 cents, or 3.6%, to 12.30 Euros after Europe's biggest airline reported a 4.7% rise in passenger traffic for March.

Cegid lost 9 cents, or 0.4%, to 22.30 Euros. The developer of enterprise business systems posted a 6.8% drop in first-quarter sales to 58 million Euros.

European Aeronautic, Defence & Co. climbed 36 cents, or 2.5%, to 14.90 Euros. The defense company's board meets in Munich Friday to evaluate possible US partners for its US Air Force tanker contract bid, La Tribune reported, citing unidentified people. L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., Raytheon Co. and BAE Systems North America will be under consideration, according to the newspaper.

HEurtey Petrochem gained 66 cents, or 2.8%, to 23.90 Euros after the producer of oil-industry equipment said it won contracts in Indonesia and Australia worth $10 million.

Pernod Ricard increased 1.60 Euros, or 2.5%, to 64.78 Euros. The company and Russian Standard Vodka said they have reached a settlement of claims brought by Russian Standard against Pernod Ricard in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Passenger traffic at Air France-KLM rose 4.7% in March, the Franco-Dutch airline group said on Thursday.

The passenger load factor, or proportion of seats sold, was up 5 percentage points to 80.5% as Air France-KLM reduced capacity by 1.9%, the group said.

Cargo, which closely tracks trends in the economy, saw a 2.1% rise in traffic on 11.8% lower capacity.

The load factor -- or proportion of available space sold in passenger jet cargo holds and dedicated freighters - rose by 9.9 percentage points to 72.5%.

Air France said its unit revenues were clearly above those of March 2009 but remained below the level of March 2008.

BELGIUM

In Brussels the Bel 20 finished the week Friday on 2,702.87, a gain of 1.28% on the day.

Belgian energy company Electrabel, owned by French utilities giant GDF Suez said its Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Hansen had asked the board to end his mandate.

Hansen, who will remain a director and retain a seat on the utility's executive committee, will be replaced by Dirk Beeuwsaert, Electrabel said in a statement following a board meeting on Wednesday.

Hansen would also continue to lead the group's talks with the Belgian government to extend the lifetime of Electrabel's three oldest nuclear reactors, Electrabel said.

Belgian mobile operator Mobistar said it has completed the acquisition of the Belgian business-to-business (B2B) and carrier activities of Dutch telecom group KPN for Eur65m (USD87.6m) on a cash and debt-free basis.

Dutch waste processing firm Van Gansewinkel said it has agreed to buy Belgian sector player Leysen from Belgium's Thenergo, which is engaged in the biomass clean energy sector.

Belgian specialist in digital video applications for TV production EVS Broadcast Equipment announced it had bought French OpenCube Technologies, providing technology solutions for MXF media, to boost its presence in production and postproduction studios.

The Belgian government has banned imports of citrus longhorn beetle (Anoplophora chinensis) host plants from China after the European standing committee on plant health failed to reach a decision at last week's phytosanitary meeting.

The move will force the European Commission into further talks on current rules, with a potential pan European ban on Chinese imports at the heart of the negotiations.

THE NETHERLANDS

The Aex in Amsterdam closed out the day on 355.89, up 1.42%.

TNT NV, the Dutch post and express mail company, said Thursday it is planning eventually to sell or spin off its mail arm, which represents a large share of its business.

TNT did not set a time frame for the strategic change. However, it said it does not see the mail arm, which was once the Netherlands' state-owned mail company, as compatible with its other operations.

TNT said in a statement ahead of its annual shareholder meeting that it will begin legally separating the mail business and surveying potential buyers for interest. It will also consider a separate stock market listing for the division.

"A final decision...will require preparation time and depends on a full assessment of all possible alternatives," the company said in a statement.

The United States and the Netherlands on Thursday abstained from supporting a controversial World Bank loan for a coal-fired power plant in South Africa, citing concerns about its impact on the environment.

A Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman said it had advised its representative at the World Bank to abstain and withhold its support for the project.

Dutch insurer Aegon said it has completed the sale of its funeral insurance unit Aegon Nabestaandenzorg for Eur212m (USD 284.7m) to home investment firm Egeria.

Anglo-Dutch consumer goods group Unilever is ready to open the auction process for its Italian frozen food unit Findus in the next few weeks.

Dutch oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell is mulling over a sale of its Finnish activities under a strategy to offload non-core assets and concentrate on larger markets.

Dutch software firm TIE Holding said it has bought the remaining 24.5% it did not already own in home sector player MamboFive.

SWITZERLAND

Zurich's SMI ended the week at 6,888.97, a rise of 1.44%.

Credit Suisse has been fined by the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to provide accurate and timely transaction reports.

The Swiss bank was ordered to pay £1.75 million (SFr2.86 million) as the British authorities step up efforts to clamp down on market abuse.

The number of suspected cases of money laundering reached an all-time high last year affecting assets worth a total of SFr2.23 billion ($2.1 billion).

The Federal Police Office said 896 incidents were reported in 2009, more than five% up on the previous year.

Two out of three of all reports were made by the banking sector, followed by cases involving the payment service sector.

Seven suspected cases concerned terrorism financing to the tune of SFr9,500.

Records on suspicious transactions have been kept since 1998.

The amended money laundering act, which came into force last year, made reporting a suspicious financial transaction mandatory even in cases where contract negotiations have been broken off.

A privately-held market trader, Getco and an agency broker, Nomura, were also found to have committed multiple breaches, according to the FSA.

It added that all three firms had ignored repeated reminders during 2007 and 2008 to review their data regularly.

Credit Suisse said it regretted the incidents, which were mainly the result of technical communication errors.

In another development, the bank has rejected allegations that it has been targeted by United States prosecutors trying to bring a flurry of new cases against individuals suspected of tax evasion.

While the banking, watch-making and manufacturing industries gather most headlines, the Swiss commodities trading sector has been making headway almost undetected.

Last year, trading in commodities such as oil, grain and electricity contributed around two% of the total Swiss economic output - about the same as tourism. But the secretive sector is undergoing changes.

Switzerland has long been a global centre in the commodities trading world thanks to its central European location, strong banking tradition and stable political and economic system.

The flow of cotton and coffee has passed through Swiss borders for hundreds of years while the oil booms in the Middle East and Russia increased Switzerland's importance. But recent changes to the commodities industry, using ever more complex financial instruments to trade and speculate, has led to an explosion of activity in Zug, and most importantly, Geneva.

Switzerland's unemployment rate stood at 4.2% in March, down from 4.4% in February, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said in a report on Thursday. Consensus forecast was for 4.3%.

The number of registered unemployed at the end of March totaled 166,032, down 6,967 from the previous month. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the jobless rate remained unchanged at 4.1%, in line with economists' expectations.

Switzerland's retail sales recorded an annual growth of 3.1% in real terms in February, following January's revised 3.7% rise, the Federal Statistical Office said in a report on Wednesday.

Turnover in the retail sector climbed by a seasonally adjusted 0.6% month-on-month in February, reversing a 0.4% fall in January. Retail sales of food, beverages and tobacco slipped 0.1%, while non-food sector sales grew 0.7%. In nominal terms, retail sales grew 0.3% on a monthly basis in February taking the annual growth to 2.5%.

Switzerland's Federal Statistical Office is scheduled to release the consumer price index or CPI data for March on Tuesday.

The CPI is expected to rise 1.4% on an annual basis for March, faster than the 0.9% increase seen in the previous month. The CPI data is due at 3.15 am ET. Month-on-month, the CPI inflation is forecast to be 0.1%, same as in the previous month.

Bank Sarasin said it is still too early to expect inflation to rise in a meaningful way.

AUSTRIA

The ATX in Vienna headed into the weekend on 2,765.84, raising 1.64% on the day Friday.

Austrians save more than the European average, new figures show.

Federal statistics agency Statistik Austria said Thursday (Weds) Austrians put eleven% of their incomes into saving accounts last year - while the average European Union (EU) rate was 5.5%. And 8.3% of incomes in the Eurozone - the 16 European countries who have the Euro as their currency - was saved in 2009.

Austrians saved 12% of their incomes in 2008.

The value of income meanwhile remained relatively stable year on year. Employees earned 1.5% more in 2009 compared to the previous year, while earnings of self-employed business people dropped by 1.7%.

Energy provider Salzburg AG announced a year on year turnover increase for its 2009 business year.

Bosses at the firm said turnover soared by 15.4% to 1.53 billion Euros mainly thanks to the extension of its trading activities.

Energy consumption by households and companies in Salzburg province meanwhile declined by 0.6% to 4.1 billion kilowatt hours.

Salzburg AG also delivered significantly less natural gas in the province with three billion kilowatt hours, down by 16%. Company officials explained the dramatic decrease of gas consumption by major customers in the economic crisis was the reason.

Salzburg AG is also active in the mobile communications and entertainment market.

It said the number of Salzburg-based cable TV consumers jumped by 5.3% to 100,156, while the number of people accessing the internet over Salzburg AG providers improved by 6.4% to 53,004.

The number of landline phone connection customers even soared by 38.1% to 13,501.

Austrian spirits producer Stroh has revealed plans to enter the Chinese market.

The Klagenfurt-based firm said Wednesday it wanted to "test the potential for its products in China" this year.

Stroh already exports 66% of the four million litres it produces every year into 29 countries.

The company's best known product is its Stroh 80 rum which contains 80% alcohol. Stroh rums are popular ingredients for traditional Austrian confection bakery.

Experts said it had to be seen whether Stroh's expansion to China turned out to be a success since the country was not known for having a drinking culture (ha-ha, they obviously have not been to the North of China!).

Austrian cellulose fibres producer Lenzing said it has bought a 75% stake in Czech pulp maker Biocel Paskov from Austrian Heinzel Holding.

Austria's wholesale prices climbed 3.1% year-on-year in March, faster than 1.2% in February, the Statistics Austria said Wednesday. The index rose 0.8% month-on-month.

During the first quarter of the year, wholesale prices increased 1.6% from a year ago.

SWEDEN

Stockholm's OMX rounded off the day Friday on 1,044.58, up 0.76% for Friday's trading session.

Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB Thursday said first-quarter net profit rose a better-than-expected 45% and March sales were also sharply up, pushing its shares to an all-time high in afternoon trading.

"There is increased traffic in our stores," Chief Executive Karl-Johan Persson said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "It looks like private consumption is gaining steam in a lot of our markets."

Net profit came in at 3.74 billion Swedish kronor ($477.5 million) from SEK2.58 billion a year earlier, beating a forecast of SEK3.39 billion from a Dow Jones Newswires survey of five analysts.

Revenue in the quarter to Feb. 28 rose 6.6% to SEK24.8 billion from SEK23.3 billion a year earlier, below expectations of SEK25.03 billion.

The Swedish company faced easy comparables from a dismal first quarter last year, but it also boosted the bottom line through successful currency hedging as the gross margin jumped to 62% from 57% a year earlier.

H&M, the world's third-largest fashion chain by revenue behind US-based Gap Inc. and Spain's Inditex SA, has rapidly expanded its stores for several years but opened only 10 in the first quarter from a targeted 240 this year, helping to boost operating profit to SEK4.98 billion as it contained costs.

Meanwhile, March sales grew 21% compared with a year earlier and sales from stores open more than one year were up 9%. In December 2009, H&M reversed a seven month long streak of declining sales in comparable stores, and although February same-store sales were down 1%, Persson believes the company is on a solid growth path.

TeliaSonera's chief executive said on Wednesday he was cautiously optimistic about business in the year ahead and stuck to the firm's outlook for strong cost management and a higher core profit.

The telecoms industry has come through the global downturn relatively well and TeliaSonera - the Nordic region's biggest operator - has said previously that a turnaround would come later this year, or possibly in 2011.

TeliaSonera still expects both a higher turnover and a higher EBITDA margin this year compared to 2009 mainly due to continued growth in its Eurasian operations.

"For 2010, we are cautiously optimistic, even if above all the Baltic market continues to feel the effects of the crisis," Chief Executive Lars Nyberg said at the company's annual general meeting.

Sweden's Post and Telecom Agency said Thursday it has ordered TeliaSonera to cut prices it charges other operators for using its fixed networks.

TeliaSonera will have to cut the prices for a number of products and services by around 1%-10%, the regulator said, adding that the price regulation is intended to improve competition in the market.

Nina Stridsberg, head of communications at TeliaSonera's Swedish infrastructure unit Skanova, said the company will follow the regulator's ruling although it plans to appeal it later on.

Första AP-Fonden, the largest of Sweden's pension funds, has delisted the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems from its global investments portfolio, citing ethical reasons centered on Elbit's involvement in the design, installation and operation of a surveillance system for the controversial barrier running between Israel and the West Bank.

The Swedish fund becomes the latest Nordic financial institution to drop Elbit from its investment portfolio. The Norwegian State Pension Fund delisted Elbit last September, and Danske Bank Pension Funds in Denmark followed suit in February.

"The Ethical Council recommended that Elbit Systems should be excluded from each portfolio because it deems that the company can be linked to violations of fundamental conventions and norms through its active development, delivery and maintenance of the custom-made monitoring system for certain parts of the separation barrier being built on the West Bank," Första AP-Fonden's Ethical Council said in a statement.

The council said it took its action after entering a dialogue with Elbit that failed to produce "the intended results."

The barrier, which comprises a network of walls, fences and closed military roads, was built by Israel as a line of defense to prevent terrorist attacks. However, Palestinians have described it as an "apartheid wall" that blocks off important areas of their "future state."

According to U.N. data, Israel has completed some 413 kilometers of the planned 709-kilometer barrier; 85% of the finished wall will be built inside the West Bank.

Elbit would not respond in any detail to Första AP-Fonden's delisting decision. "We do not plan to comment on the matter."

DENMARK

In Copenhagen the OMX completed at hectic shortened week on 393.99, a gain of 0.43% for the day Friday.

Denmark's largest meat company, Danish Crown, implemented its self-proclaimed 'Plan B' Thursday, laying off 580 of its employees.

The company claimed the dismissals are the direct result of the latest bargaining agreement negotiated between the Confederation of Danish Industries and the Danish Food and Allied Workers' Union (NNF).

Danish Crown had pushed for a wage freeze but NNF negotiated 3% pay rises for the meat packers.

Last month Danish Crown warned that if the employees approved the new agreement the company would have to fire 600 workers due to declining profits.

The broken record keeps playing for businesses in Denmark as once again the monthly record for bankruptcies has been surpassed.

According to analysis firm Experian, 656 companies went belly-up in March, 'besting' this past November's mark of 599. The number is the highest since the firm began keeping bankruptcy figures, reported financial daily Børsen.

Experian's report did suggest there was light at the end of the tunnel, however, as the number of newly established companies increased by nearly 20% compared to March 2009 figures.

According to figures from Statistics Denmark, a total of 7,374 businesses have gone under since the start of 2009.

Denmark's manufacturing activity growth eased in March, Purchasing and Logistics Forum/DILF said on Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted purchasing managers index or PMI for manufacturing stood at 54.3 in March, down from 54.4 in the previous month. However, the PMI was expanded for the third successive month in March. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 signals a contraction.

The index for manufacturing production climbed to 63 in March from 58.6 in the previous month, while the index for new orders dropped to 59 from 60.4. Employment slowed to 45.7 from 46.4.

In the first quarter, the PMI for manufacturing stood at 55.1, up from 48.1 in the fourth quarter.

FINLAND

Helsinki's OMX went into the weekend on 7,371.59, gaining 0.29% on the session.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on Wednesday warned Finland that the strong stimulus adopted by the Finnish government to counter the global downturn had undermined long-term fiscal sustainability of the country.

The budget surplus of 5.2% of GDP recorded in 2007 is likely to swing to a similarly large deficit in 2011, the organization said.

The OECD urged the government to draw up a clear fiscal consolidation plan, including measures to raise the retirement age, cut spending, and raise taxes on consumption and property to repair public finances.

"The government should endeavor to broaden tax bases and raise beneficial taxes, while holding off from raising them on corporations or Labour," the organization said.

OECD also urged the scandinavian country to adopt a more stringent unemployment benefits system as "generous benefits will be problematic when Labour demand starts to grow".

Thursday, the Statistics Finland said in a report that the gross domestic product or GDP indicator dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in January, compared to the 0.8% growth in the previous month, revised from 0.2% rise estimated initially.

Year-on-year, the GDP indicator decreased a working day adjusted 0.2% in January, after falling 3.5% in December, revised from 5.3% reported initially. Economists expected a flat reading for January. A year earlier, the indicator was down 9.4%.

On an unadjusted basis, the output of the national economy fell 0.5% in January, compared to the 2.4% fall in December, revised from 4.2% decline estimated initially. The main reason for the revision was the benchmarking of the data to quarterly accounts, the statistical office said.

Thursday, the Statistics Finland announced that the new motor vehicle registrations decreased 19.9% on an annual basis in March, compared to the 0.1% growth in the previous month.

The number of new motor vehicle registrations totaled 15,010 in March, of which 10,187 were automobiles. The number of new passenger cars registrations slipped 15.2% to 9,108, while the share of new diesel-driven passenger cars was 42.1%.

For the January to March period, the number of new motor vehicle registrations decreased 7.6% compared to the same period of the previous year. The vehicles registrations totaled 44,242.

Meanwhile , the number of new passenger cars registrations declined 1.4% to 29,084. The most common passenger car makes first registered were Volkswagen, Toyota and Ford, the statistical office said.

KONE, a major player in the elevator and escalator industry, announced the acquisition of the assets of Honolulu-based Akamai Elevator Company, in a move to further beef up its presence on the Hawaiian market.

NORWAY

The OBX in Oslo emerged from a busy week on 352.92, 1.29% to the positive.

The EU Commission has approved US company Cisco's acquisition of the Norwegian firm Tandberg,a global leader in video communications.

Cisco made a cash tender offer to purchase all the outstanding shares of Tandberg for 153.5 Norwegian Kroner per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $3.0 billion.

Norwegian shipyards last year experienced their worst year, with orders worth only NOK 1.3 billion. This is a drop of nearly 90% since the top years of 2005 and 2006, Aftenposten reports.

In the top years, the Norwegian yards received orders worth up to NOK 17-18 billion a year, the paper writes.

At present, only a few of the 25 Norwegian yards have orders lasting into 2011.

Most of the contracts at Norwegian yards have been for vessels to the offshore industry. But already now there is a surplus of offshofre vessels on the market.

Around 10,000 are employed at Norwegian shipyards, and another 12-14.000 in the ships' equipment and outfitting industry.

Norway's house prices climbed 10.7% year-on-year in March, the Norwegian Association of Real Estate Agents (NEF) and the Association of Real Estate Undertakings (EFF) said Tuesday. On a monthly basis, prices rose 1% on an adjusted as well as unadjusted basis, following a flat trend in February.

Further, house prices are 3.3% higher than in the peak month of August 2007. After adjusting for inflation, prices were down 5.5% from their peak. House prices have risen 6% thus far this year.

Prices of single-family homes rose 11.1% year-on-year and 2.8% month-on-month in March. Prices of apartments rose 10.5% year-on-year and 0.5% on a monthly basis.

Norway's purchasing managers index or PMI for manufacturing increased to 49.6 in March from 49.3 in February, a survey conducted by Logistics Association NIMA and Focus Bank showed on Tuesday. Economists expected a reading of 50.7.

The PMI reading for February was revised from 49.4 reported initially. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 signals a contraction.

The manufacturing output index dropped to 51.5 in March from 52 in the previous month, while employment index fell to 45.6 from 46.8. Stocks of intermediate goods rose to 48.6 in March from 44.7 in February.

Meanwhile, new orders index stood at 47.8 in March, down from 48.6 in the previous month. This was the lowest value since October last year.

Norway-based Internet retailer Komplett announced the completion of the sale of its unit Komplett BV to Dutch sector firm ParaDigit Holding for an undisclosed sum.

SPAIN

Madrid's IBEX bourse closed the day Friday on 11,394.20, a healthy 2.87% to the upside.

Spain's Labour Ministry said on Tuesday that the number of registered unemployed increased 35,988 or 0.87% from the previous month to 4,166,613 in March. From the previous year, unemployment rose 561,211 or 15.5%.

The Secretary General for Employment Maravillas Rojo said unemployment situation is expected to improve in the months ahead amid economic recovery and the easing intensity of adjustments in the Labour market.

Spanish export prices climbed 1.7% year-on-year in February, accelerating from the 1.2% increase in the previous month, Madrid-based National Statistics Institute reported on Tuesday.

Import prices registered an increase of 4.7% in February compared to a year ago, adding to the 3.4% increase in January.

On a monthly basis, import prices gained 1.2% while export prices were up 0.7%.

Markit Economics said on Wednesday that the Spain services purchasing managers' index stood at a seasonally adjusted 41.3 in March, up from the 47.1 score in February.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while one below suggests contraction. The reading signaled the fastest increase in activity at Spanish service providers since October 2007, and the first positive expansion since December 2007.

Survey respondents indicated that the modest rise was mainly due to an increase in new business.

Levels of new business received by Spanish service providers increased for the first time in 29 months in March, with the fastest rises recorded at transport & storage, and financial intermediation companies.

Despite the rise in activity, employment levels in the services sector were reduced again, although the rate of job cuts eased to the weakest in two years.

Input costs faced by service providers increased for the first time in three months in March, while output charges were slashed due to intense competition.

Spanish brewer Damm invested Eur6.09m (USD8.2m) to raise its stake in home food group Ebro Puleva to 7.46% from 7.18%.

The board of Spanish savings bank Caixanova voted in favour of launching merger negotiations with local peer Caixa Galicia.

PORTUGAL

In Lisbon the PSI General brought the week to a close on 2,832.32, up 2.08%.

Wednesday, Portugal's National Institute of Statistics announced that the average annual industrial new orders dropped 0.4% in the three months to February, compared to the 6.8% fall in the previous three months period ended in January. A year earlier, new orders were down 20%.

During the period, new orders from the external market decreased 5.1%, compared to the 10.7% fall in the previous month. However, new orders from the domestic market increased to 4.8% from a decline of 2.8% in January.

Workers at Portugal's oil company Galp plan to halt the country's two refineries and other Galp installations between April 19 and 21 if their wage demands are not met, a union leader said on Thursday.

The two refineries, in Sines and in Porto, have a total capacity of about 300,000 barrels per day.

Ribeiro dos Santos, coordinator of the oil, gas and chemical industry workers' union Sinorquifa, said the company had been trying to assure that minimum production levels are maintained during the strike. "But we considered that unacceptable and will proceed with the full stoppage," he said.

Still, he said the union was open to further salary negotiations with Galp.

ITALY

Italy's benchmark FTSE MIB Index advanced 283.86, or 1.2%, to 23,103.87, paring this week's loss to 0.4%.

Italcementi gained 31 cents, or 3.5%, to 9.16 Euros, the biggest advance in two months. Ciments Francais SA, the international unit of Italcementi, closed a tender offer for private placement notes.

Saipem climbed 53 cents, or 1.8%, to 29.49 Euros, its second gain this week. Europe's largest oilfield-services provider advanced with crude oil amid growing confidence that the economic recovery will stimulate fuel demand. Eni SpA (ENI IM) gained 19 cents, or 1.1%, to 17.54 Euros.

Italian service providers recorded a considerable growth in activity in March as a marked increase in incoming business levels led to the fastest growth of service sector output since October 2007, a survey conducted by Markit Economics showed on Wednesday.

The Markit/ADACI business activity index stood at 55.3 in March, up from 50.8 in February. Economists had expected the index to rise to 52. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.

An economist at Markit said, "The Italian service sector rounded off the first quarter of 2010 with the steepest monthly expansion of output since October 2007, as another rise in new orders raised firms' activity levels. Italian service providers will also welcome the sharpest increase in outstanding orders in almost four years, as capacity pressures start to build."

GREECE

The Athex Composite in - you guessed it, Athens - ended the day and the week Friday on 1,991.22, up 3.4%.

Greek GDP fell -0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the third quarter, according to second estimates released by Eurostat in Brussels on Wednesday. In the same period, Euro area and EU27 GDP rose 0.1%.

The growth rate in Greece in the fourth quarter of 2009 when compared with the fourth quarter of 2008 was -2.5% of GDP (down from -2.6% in first estimates published on March 4). In the same space of time, Euro area GDP declined 2.2% (2.1% in the first estimates) and EU27 GDP declined 2.3%.

As experts from the International Monetary Fund arrived in Athens to advise the government on how to curb a spiraling budget deficit, Prime Minister George Papandreou Thursday asked his ministers to focus on implementing austerity measures and pushing through much-needed reforms, noting that constant speculation about the course of Greece's economy was harmful. "We should abandon the easy pastime of focusing on rumors, which has dominated in recent months, and instead concentrate constantly and intensely on the problems of this country that need correcting, from institutional changes to a shift in mentality," Papandreou told a Cabinet meeting Thursday.

After the session, several ministers condemned renewed speculation in recent days, by both the media and financial markets. In a clear dig at a foreign press report earlier this week that quoted an unnamed government official as saying that Greece was considering renegotiating a rescue package hammered out with Eurozone ministers last week, Minister of State Haris Paboukis called on journalists to name their sources to avoid such misunderstandings. Alternate Defense Minister Panos Beglitis advised all government officials to be careful with any statements they make as "anything said can be used at the expense of the collective effort being made for the country to overcome the crisis."

In Brussels, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy struck a similar note. "It is particularly harmful to Greek taxpayers that all manner of rumors are being started," he said, rebuffing reports that Greece had tried to change the terms of a safety net brokered by Eurozone leaders to offer loans in a deal backed by the IMF. "The Greek government has in no way asked to revisit the agreement struck a fortnight ago," Van Rompuy said.

In Athens meanwhile, IMF officials launched talks with Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou on the government's efforts to cut public spending and push through structural reforms. According to ministry sources, the officials, who will be here for two weeks, examined a draft law aimed at curbing widespread tax evasion. No new measures were proposed as the officials are here in an advisory capacity, ministry officials said.