France confident UK won't quit A400M - source

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City of Industry, CA --(www.USEquityNews.com)-- 07/02/2009 - International industry alert provided by U.S. Equity News. PARIS, July 2 (Reuters) - France is confident Britain will commit to the Airbus (EAD.PA) A400M military transport plane but disagreements remain over how to share out the costs of delays to the programme, a French presidency source said on Thursday. The A400M, which would be built by European planemaker Airbus (EAD.DE), has faced repeated production delays and cost overruns. European nations involved in the project on June 22 postponed a decision on whether to commit to it for good. "The question is to know ... what balance we are going to find between the states and (Airbus parent) EADS to overcome both scheduling and financing difficulties," said the senior official at President Nicolas Sarkozy's office. The source was speaking to reporters ahead of a summit in France on Monday between Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, during which the A400M will be discussed. [Read the full article]


BEIJING, July 2 (Reuters) - China hopes for diversification of the international currency system in the future, and it would be "normal" for the issue to be raised for discussion at next week's Group of Eight summit, Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said on Thursday. Speaking at a news briefing ahead of President Hu Jintao attending a G8 summit in Italy next week, He said he was not aware of reports that China had requested a debate about global reserve currencies. G8 sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Beijing had asked for a debate on proposals for a new global reserve currency at the G8 summit and the issue could be referred to briefly in the summit statement. [ID:nL1293071] The news pushed down the dollar, which is particularly sensitive to comments from China because bankers estimate the country holds perhaps 70 percent of its $1.95 trillion in official currency reserves in the U.S. currency. [Read the full article]

FRANKFURT, July 2 (Reuters) - European shares fell on a broad front by midday on Thursday, with food and beverage stocks the key exception, led by Diageo (DGE.L), as investors awaited U.S. jobs data and policy news from the European Central Bank. The ECB's rate decision is due at 1145 GMT and bank President Jean-Claude Trichet's news conference starts at 1230 GMT. All but one of 82 economists polled by Reuters believe the ECB's key refi rate will stay at 1.0 percent. [ID:nL2512532] By 1100 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index was down 1.0 percent at 856.92 points, having risen 1.8 percent on Wednesday. After a steep rise since early March, the European benchmark index has traded choppily in a narrow range since mid-June, as has the U.S. S&P 500 index .SPX. [Read the full article]

LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - The euro hit the day's low against the dollar and the spread between Irish and German government bonds widened on Thursday after ratings agency Moody's downgraded its credit rating on Ireland. Moody's cut its rating on Ireland to AA1 from AAA, saying that the country would face a higher debt burden for the foreseeable future. It said its outlook on the country was negative [ID:nWLA8142]. The euro EUR= fell to the day's low of $1.4048 EUR= after the announcement, according to Reuters data. By 1123 GMT, it had pulled back slightly to around $1.4066, down 0.6 percent on the day. The premium investors demand to hold Irish government bonds over benchmark German Bunds rose slightly, although the cost of protecting Irish government debt against default barely moved. The 10-year Irish/German government bond yield spread widnened to 234 basis points from around 229 basis points, Reuters charts showed. [Read the full article]

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