BASIC METALS-Copper falls erode U.S. confidence data

Copper prices fell on Friday as investors sold industrial metals, after a series of U.S. economic data eroded confidence and worries about the future increase in demand.
The benchmark copper in London Metal Exchange (LME by its initials in English) operated at $ 5903 a tonne at 1153 GMT from $ 5985 on Thursday.
The September manufacturing data in the U.S., the world's largest economy, were lower than expected, sparking a sell-off on Thursday.
U.S. auto sales fell 23 percent in September, because the dealers were left empty after sales boom driven by the summer program of the Government. The companies most affected were General Motors and Chrysler.
"The market is watching the U.S. manufacturing (.) Sales of cars was very poor," said Dan Smith, analyst at Standard Chartered. "Falling auto sales will have a domino effect (.) The implications go beyond the automotive sector," he added.

Traders said the publication of the September non-farm payrolls on Friday could spark new sales, bringing the copper could fall back towards $ 5818 a ton, a key support level and the lowest since Aug. 18 .Aluminum for delivery in three months was trading at $ 1823 from $ 1858 a tonne on Thursday.
Lead, used material for the manufacture of batteries, it ran $ 2117 to $ 2195 a tonne from late Thursday.
Nickel ran to $ 17,200 from $ 17,425 a tonne on Thursday, the zinc from $ 1877 to $ 1913 and tin from $ 14,275 to $ 14,200.

EU was EUR 9,500 million deficit in goods trade with Brazil in 2008

The European Union (EU) registered a deficit of about 9,000 million euro in their exchange of goods with Brazil in 2008, a period in which he obtained a surplus of nearly 3,000 million euros in trade in services, according to Eurostat data, the EU statistics office.
In addition, Brazil was the tenth largest trading partner of twenty-seven in the first half of 2009, representing 1.8% of exports and imports 2.1% of total EU trade.
During the summit between the EU and Brazil to be held in Stockholm on October 6, Eurostat published data for investment and trade between both sides.
Between 2000 and 2008, the value of exports of EU goods to Brazil increased by 56%, while imports almost doubled, so that the EU trade deficit with Brazil grew at that time and spent 1,800 million to 9,500 million in 2008.

Moreover, in the first six months of 2009, the EU trade deficit with Brazil was reduced to 3,300 million euros versus 5,500 million in the same period the previous year.
As pointed out by Eurostat, the decline in value of EU trade with Brazil from the first half of 2008 and 2009 "is in line with the general downward trend of the total EU external trade during the same period observed .

Brazil's share in total foreign trade of goods from the EU went from around 2% between 2000 and 2008.During the first six months of this year, Germany was the main European exporter to Brazil (3,100 million euros and 33% of EU exports), followed by France and Italy (1.200 million and 13% each).
The main importer was the Netherlands (2,700 million and 21% of total EU imports), ahead of Germany (2,500 million euros and 20%), the United Kingdom and Italy (1.300 million and 10% each ), France (1.200 million and 10%) and Spain (1,100 million and 9%).

Germany also registered the largest trade surplus with Brazil (600 million) during the first part of this year, followed by Austria (200 million).
The main deficits were registered in the Netherlands (2,100 million), the United Kingdom (600 million), Spain (500 million) and Belgium (400 million).
Moreover, in 2008 the EU exported services to Brazil for 9,000 million euros, while imports were 6,100 million, representing a surplus of 2,900 million euros of the Twenty in their exchange of services with the Latin American country, versus 600 million recorded in 2006 and 1,600 million in 2007.

Brazil accounted for about 1.5% of total services trade between the EU and third countries.
Finally, foreign direct investment from the EU to Brazil, amounting to 15,300 million euros in 2007, escalated to the divestiture of 3,400 million euros in 2008, while Brazilian direct investment in the EU grew from 1,600 million in 2007 to 6,900 million in 2008.

Stimuli withdraw euro countries in 2011 if recovery is confirmed

The euro countries agree to maintain the extraordinary measures of economic momentum until 2011, when, if confirmed recovery, began to withdraw from a coordinated manner.
This decision was adopted today by the finance ministers of the area (Eurogroup) and supported by the European Commission and European Central Bank (ECB) during a meeting in Gothenburg (Sweden).
Most European economies, including Spain, are experiencing dramatic increases in government deficits and debt as a result of the substantial aid the financial sector and increased spending to boost activity and to address the increase of unemployment.

Despite the obvious deterioration of public finances, which will often overshoot the deficit and debt limits set by the Stability Pact, the authorities are aware that an untimely withdrawal of incentives may jeopardize the recovery .Therefore, given the fragility that still shows the European economy, the Eurogroup arrived to the conclusion that "it is time to remove the stimuli," explained the end of the meeting the chairman of this informal forum, Prime Minister Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker.

"The economic situation is evolving positively though, remains fragile," said Juncker.
According to the president of Luxembourg, before starting to curb the deficit must wait to confirm that the European economy will stabilize in 2011.
Since the European Commission, the holder of Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia said that "we must discuss now (how to end the stimuli in a coordinated way), but the time to apply when the recovery will be more clear."

This will happen, according to the commissioner, when growth see again driven by domestic and external demand, without the support of exceptional measures such as those now in force in most countries.Somewhat stricter, the ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet reiterated the importance of rigorously applying the principles of the Stability Pact, saying that the path of fiscal consolidation should resume "at the latest by 2011".
Regarding monetary policy, Trichet outlined that the ECB's priority remains to ensure price stability, which for now is not at risk.
Also the second vice-president of the Spanish Government, Elena Salgado, said that "2011 may be a good year" for the abolition of special initiatives for revival, always confirming the start of recovery, which drove in the second half of next year .

Salgado made clear that the tax increase just approved by the Government does not contradict this strategy and recalled that more European countries have decided to raise taxes.
Moreover, both Juncker and Almunia had an impact on the measures to clean up the public purse, when finally adopted, they must be accompanied by a decided impetus to structural reforms to raise the capacity for growth-heavily depleted after the recession - and increase the resilience of the economy to future crises.
They said, in this regard that the growth potential of the euro area has fallen to the crisis environment of 1 percent and warned that if no action is taken, shall not exceed 1.5 percent the next few years, a rate insufficient to meet the challenges associated with aging and reduce unemployment.

Tax havens: French banks will close branches and subsidiaries in 2010

The French banks closed in March 2010 its subsidiaries and branches in countries regarded as tax havens and included in the "gray" the OECD said the skipper of one of these establishments, François Pearl, following a meeting with President the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy.
"The French banks took the decision to start closing their branches and subsidiaries in tax havens which remain on the list called 'gray' OECD in March 2010," said the group pattern Banque Populaire, Caisse d'Epargne (BPCE), François Perot.
"From that date, we have begun the end of our operations through subsidiaries and branches in these tax havens," said Pearl.
"It's a decision that was adopted by all French banks and shows that, from that standpoint, things change and change fast," he said.
On Monday the French bank BNB Paribas announced that by 2010 close its subsidiaries and branches in Panama and the Bahamas, two tax havens listed in the "gray list" of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) .
Last week, the summit of industrialized and emerging countries of the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh (USA) reiterated his desire to put an end to tax havens.

OIL-barrel dlr falls at least 70 after surging nearly 4 DLRS

Oil fell below $ 70 on Thursday, down from its biggest intraday jump since April, because the bulging inventories of distillates tarnished the positive perception and revived the notion that oil prices may have outpaced the demand.
U.S. crude futures fell 63 cents to $ 69.98 a barrel by 1134 GMT, after rising nearly $ 4 on Wednesday.
London Brent crude lost 52 cents to $ 68.55 a barrel.
A surprise drop in gasoline inventories in the United States fired up for Wednesday, which allowed the oil obtained with difficulty a slight profit for the third quarter, strengthening the commodity indexes at large.
The data from the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. government reported a drop of 1.6 million barrels in gasoline inventories in the week ended Sept. 25. The distillates rose 300,000 barrels, but remain at a maximum of 26 years of 171.1 million, before the winter demand.
Crude inventories rose 2.8 million barrels in the same period, more than expected.
"Actually, (the drop in gasoline inventories) demonstrates how the market is based on hope, not on sound analysis of the facts," said analyst David Wech JBC Energy in a research note .