Stocks rise as US inflation cools, tech stocks bounce

Equity markets mostly rose on Thursday as investors welcomed cool US inflation data while tech stocks bounced and central banks avoided monetary policy surprises.US consumer inflation slowed unexpectedly in November, climbing 2.7 percent from a year ago, coming in considerably below analysts’ predictions of a 3.1-percent uptick.”Although this is just one inflation reading — and admittedly not the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — easing inflation concerns could open the door to a more accommodative Fed moving forward,” said eToro analyst Bret Kenwell.Wall Street’s three main indices pushed higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finishing up 1.4 percent.Large tech companies bounced following blowout results from chip company Micron Technology, which surged more than 10 percent after reporting that quarterly profits nearly tripled to $5.2 billion as it benefits from the AI boom.Other big AI players also prospered, with Google parent Alphabet, Nvidia and Facebook parent Meta Platforms all winning about two percent or more. Oracle, which endured a bruising session on Wednesday, climbed 0.8 percent.”The sector got a boost from a strong set of quarterly results from Micron Technology,” said Trade Nation analyst David Morrison.”The question now is if today’s bounce is a dip-buying opportunity which morphs into a ‘Santa Rally’, or if it is simply a round of short-covering ahead of another lurch lower,” said Morrison.Hopes for an end-of-year rally, often called a Santa Claus Rally, face potential headwinds this year due to questions about Fed policy and scrutiny of lofty AI equity valuations.The Bank of England, as expected, cut its key interest rate to 3.75 percent after UK inflation eased faster than expected and as the economy weakened.The European Central Bank held rates steady, also as expected, while it raised growth forecasts for this year and next.It was the fourth meeting in a row where the ECB held rates steady following a year-long series of cuts.”The new macroeconomic projections suggest there is little scope for further easing in the short term,” said GianLuigi Mandruzzato, senior economist at EFG Asset Management.ECB chief Christine Lagarde indicated that “all optionalities should be on the table” regarding future interest rate decisions, citing high global “uncertainty.”Both Frankfurt and Paris stocks ended the day higher.Asian stock markets mostly sank Thursday after Wednesday’s sell-off on Wall Street as worries over the tech sector’s colossal spending on artificial intelligence continued to dog investor sentiment.- Key figures at around 2115 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 47,951.85 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.8 percent at 6,774.76 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 1.4 percent at 23,006.36 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.7 percent at 9,837.77 (close) Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.8 percent at 8,150.64 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.0 percent at 24,199.50 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0 percent at 49,001.50 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.1 percent at 25,498.13 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,876.37 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1721 from $1.1741 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3378 from $1.3376Dollar/yen: DOWN at 155.63 yen from 155.69Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.62 pence from 87.72Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at $59.81 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $56.15 per barrelburs-jmb/msp

US imposes sanctions on two more ICC judges for Israel probe

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on two more judges of the International Criminal Court after they rejected an attempt by Israel to end a war crimes probe in Gaza.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had already ordered sanctions on judges and prosecutors in the case, explicitly linked the new measures to a vote Monday in which the two judges sided with the majority and upheld arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.”We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject US and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction,” Rubio said in a statement.”We will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to the ICC’s lawfare and overreach,” he wrote.It brings the number of ICC judges sanctioned by the Trump administration to at least eight, along with at least three prosecutors including chief prosecutor Karim Khan.The Hague-based ICC responded that it “strongly rejects” the fresh sanctions.The measures are “a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution,” the ICC said in a statement.Israel praised the US move. “Thank you, Secretary Rubio, for this moral clear stance,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X.The judges newly slapped with sanctions were Gocha Lordkipanidze, formerly Georgia’s justice minister, and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia.The sanctions ban the judges from entering the United States and block property or financial transactions with them in the world’s largest economy.Lordkipanidze was formerly an adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York.Monday’s 44-page ruling upheld the decision to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.Netanyahu and Gallant both face accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the relentless Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory launched after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.The latest action puts the United States in league with Russia, which last week sentenced ICC judges and prosecutor Khan in absentia.The ICC had also issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladmir Putin related to the invasion of Ukraine.The United States, Israel and Russia are among the countries that reject the ICC, which is backed by nearly all Western democracies.The ICC was set up in 2002 as a court of last resort when countries do not have adequate legal systems to ensure accountability.During Trump’s first term, the United States also took action against the top ICC prosecutor in a successful attempt to block an investigation into alleged abuses during the US-led war in Afghanistan.Former president Joe Biden’s administration lifted the sanctions and sought limited cooperation with the court, especially over Ukraine. 

US imposes sanctions on two more ICC judges for Israel probe

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on two more judges of the International Criminal Court after they rejected an attempt by Israel to end a war crimes probe in Gaza.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had already ordered sanctions on judges and prosecutors in the case, explicitly linked the new measures to a vote Monday in which the two judges sided with the majority and upheld arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.”We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject US and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction,” Rubio said in a statement.”We will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to the ICC’s lawfare and overreach,” he wrote.It brings the number of ICC judges sanctioned by the Trump administration to at least eight, along with at least three prosecutors including chief prosecutor Karim Khan.The Hague-based ICC responded that it “strongly rejects” the fresh sanctions.The measures are “a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution,” the ICC said in a statement.Israel praised the US move. “Thank you, Secretary Rubio, for this moral clear stance,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X.The judges newly slapped with sanctions were Gocha Lordkipanidze, formerly Georgia’s justice minister, and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia.The sanctions ban the judges from entering the United States and block property or financial transactions with them in the world’s largest economy.Lordkipanidze was formerly an adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York.Monday’s 44-page ruling upheld the decision to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.Netanyahu and Gallant both face accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the relentless Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory launched after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.The latest action puts the United States in league with Russia, which last week sentenced ICC judges and prosecutor Khan in absentia.The ICC had also issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladmir Putin related to the invasion of Ukraine.The United States, Israel and Russia are among the countries that reject the ICC, which is backed by nearly all Western democracies.The ICC was set up in 2002 as a court of last resort when countries do not have adequate legal systems to ensure accountability.During Trump’s first term, the United States also took action against the top ICC prosecutor in a successful attempt to block an investigation into alleged abuses during the US-led war in Afghanistan.Former president Joe Biden’s administration lifted the sanctions and sought limited cooperation with the court, especially over Ukraine. 

Prisma Media prévoit un plan de départ jusqu’à 240 personnes, un tiers des salariés

Trois mois après sa reprise en main par des proches du milliardaire Vincent Bolloré et dans un contexte de crise des médias, le groupe Prisma, numéro un de la presse magazine en France, prévoit un plan de départ pouvant atteindre jusqu’à 240 personnes, soit un tiers de ses salariés.Ce plan, confirmé de sources syndicales et …

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“Espionnage”, “barbouzes”: devant les députés, Cohen et Legrand accusent les médias Bolloré

“Espionnage”, “barbouzes”: Patrick Cohen et Thomas Legrand ont mis en cause jeudi, devant les députés, les méthodes des médias de la galaxie Bolloré et dénoncé une “opération de propagande” dans l’affaire de la vidéo où ils apparaissent avec deux responsables socialistes.Trois mois après cette tempête politico-médiatique, les deux journalistes intervenant dans l’audiovisuel public ont été …

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La Cour suprême autrichienne ordonne à Meta de livrer à Max Schrems toutes ses données personnelles

La Cour suprême autrichienne a ordonné jeudi à Meta, après onze ans de procédure, de fournir dans les quinze jours l’accès à toutes ses données personnelles à Max Schrems, militant de la protection de la vie privée, qui salue “un accès sans précédent” aux rouages du géant américain.”La personnalisation des publicités et l’utilisation de données …

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US hosting new Gaza talks to push next phase of deal

The United States will host talks in Miami on Friday to push the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, as President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely visit him at the close of the year.Trump’s roving special envoy Steve Witkoff is to meet senior officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey in Florida, a White House official told AFP Thursday, amid fears that efforts to reach the second stage of the deal are stalling.Under the second stage, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.But progress in moving to that phase of October’s agreement between Israel and Hamas, which was brokered by Washington and its regional allies, has so far been slow.The ceasefire also remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling.Israel said it had struck and killed the head of weapons production in Hamas’s military wing in the Gaza Strip last weekend, a move that reportedly sparked Trump to warn of jeopardizing the truce.Trump said Netanyahu would “probably come to see me in Florida,” where the US president will be staying over the Christmas holidays at his Mar-a-Lago resort.”He would like to see me. We haven’t set it up formally, but he’d like to see me,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about a report by the Axios news site that Netanyahu was expected to visit on December 29.- ‘Justice is served’ -Trump said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday that the Gaza truce had brought peace to the Middle East “for the first time in 3,000 years.”In the first phase of the Gaza deal, Palestinian militants committed to releasing the remaining 48 living and dead captives held in the territory. So far, they have released all of the hostages except for one body.But the Trump administration is now keen to proceed to the difficult second stage, with the provision for Hamas to lay down its weapons being a particular sticking point.Hamas’s Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said Sunday that the militant group had a “legitimate right” to hold weapons. Israel has repeatedly insisted Hamas “will be disarmed.”The third phase includes the reconstruction of the vast areas of Gaza levelled by Israel’s retaliatory military campaign for Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.Turkey said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan would represent Ankara at the talks with Witkoff. “Turkey will continue to fight determinedly on every front to ensure that what is happening in Gaza is not forgotten, that justice is served,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a speech on Wednesday.Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner played a key role in the shuttle diplomacy that led to the deal to end the Gaza war.The US pair are also involved in talks to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and will meet Russian officials in Miami over the weekend.

US hosting new Gaza talks to push next phase of deal

The United States will host talks in Miami on Friday to push the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, as President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely visit him at the close of the year.Trump’s roving special envoy Steve Witkoff is to meet senior officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey in Florida, a White House official told AFP Thursday, amid fears that efforts to reach the second stage of the deal are stalling.Under the second stage, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.But progress in moving to that phase of October’s agreement between Israel and Hamas, which was brokered by Washington and its regional allies, has so far been slow.The ceasefire also remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling.Israel said it had struck and killed the head of weapons production in Hamas’s military wing in the Gaza Strip last weekend, a move that reportedly sparked Trump to warn of jeopardizing the truce.Trump said Netanyahu would “probably come to see me in Florida,” where the US president will be staying over the Christmas holidays at his Mar-a-Lago resort.”He would like to see me. We haven’t set it up formally, but he’d like to see me,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about a report by the Axios news site that Netanyahu was expected to visit on December 29.- ‘Justice is served’ -Trump said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday that the Gaza truce had brought peace to the Middle East “for the first time in 3,000 years.”In the first phase of the Gaza deal, Palestinian militants committed to releasing the remaining 48 living and dead captives held in the territory. So far, they have released all of the hostages except for one body.But the Trump administration is now keen to proceed to the difficult second stage, with the provision for Hamas to lay down its weapons being a particular sticking point.Hamas’s Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said Sunday that the militant group had a “legitimate right” to hold weapons. Israel has repeatedly insisted Hamas “will be disarmed.”The third phase includes the reconstruction of the vast areas of Gaza levelled by Israel’s retaliatory military campaign for Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.Turkey said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan would represent Ankara at the talks with Witkoff. “Turkey will continue to fight determinedly on every front to ensure that what is happening in Gaza is not forgotten, that justice is served,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a speech on Wednesday.Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner played a key role in the shuttle diplomacy that led to the deal to end the Gaza war.The US pair are also involved in talks to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and will meet Russian officials in Miami over the weekend.

Enquête pour corruption et perquisitions chez Rachida Dati

Nouveau tourment à trois mois des élections municipales: des perquisitions ont été menées jeudi aux domiciles de Rachida Dati, candidate à Paris, ainsi que dans sa mairie du 7e arrondissement de la capitale, dans le cadre d’une enquête pour corruption.La ministre de la Culture est soupçonnée d’avoir perçu 299.000 euros d’honoraires de GDF Suez quand elle était députée européenne (2009-2019), sans en déclarer la provenance au Parlement européen, comme l’a signalé une source proche du dossier à l’AFP.L’information judiciaire est ouverte “notamment des chefs de corruption active et passive, trafic d’influence, détournement de fonds publics, recel et blanchiment de ces délits en lien avec l’exercice du mandat de parlementaire européen de Madame Rachida Dati”, écrit ainsi le procureur de la République financier, Jean-François Bohnert, dans un communiqué.Il y est fait mention jeudi d'”opérations de perquisition visant divers lieux, dont notamment la mairie du 7e arrondissement de Paris et le ministère de la Culture, ainsi que des domiciles”. Elles s’inscrivent dans le cadre “d’une information judiciaire ouverte le 14 octobre et confiée à deux juges d’instruction du pôle économique et financier du tribunal judiciaire de Paris”, peut-on encore lire, confirmant des informations du Nouvel Obs et de l’émission Complément d’Enquête, sur France 2, qui ont révélé les investigations. Tout est parti d’une enquête préliminaire conduite depuis le 16 avril “sur la base, notamment, d’un signalement Tracfin (renseignement financier, ndlr) reçu par le PNF (Parquet national financier)”, explique Jean-François Bohnert.Les investigations sont menées par l’Office central de lutte contre la corruption et les infractions financières et fiscales (OCLCIFF). Me Olivier Pardo, un des avocats de Mme Dati, sondé par l’AFP, s’est refusé à tout commentaire. Ses autres conseils n’ont pas donné suite ou ne pouvaient communiquer dans l’immédiat.- Cascade de dossiers judiciaires -Selon une enquête diffusée début juin sur France 2, les fonds du géant français avaient transité par un cabinet d’avocats, STC Partners, avant d’être rebasculés sur les comptes de Mme Dati en 2010 et 2011. D’après Complément d’enquête, l’origine de ces revenus n’a pas été déclarée au Parlement européen comme cela est requis pour éviter les conflits d’intérêt.La candidate à la mairie de Paris avait qualifié sur Europe 1 et CNews ces accusations de “diffamatoires”, assurant que les documents évoqués dans cette émission ont déjà “été examinés par la justice” dans le cadre des investigations sur l’affaire Carlos Ghosn.Car Mme Dati est déjà renvoyée devant le tribunal correctionnel dans un autre dossier, pour corruption et trafic d’influence, dans lequel elle devra comparaître aux côtés de Carlos Ghosn. L’ancien tout-puissant patron de Renault-Nissan est établi au Liban depuis fin 2019 après une fuite rocambolesque du Japon et est visé depuis avril 2023 par un mandat d’arrêt.Le procès est fixé du 16 au 28 septembre 2026, soit six mois après les municipales prévues les 15 et 22 mars prochains.La figure de proue de la droite parisienne ne compte plus les dossiers sur le terrain judiciaire. La ministre de la Culture est ainsi visée par une autre enquête, ouverte par le parquet de Paris, concernant une éventuelle non-déclaration de bijoux de luxe.Mme Dati avait été mise en cause mi-avril par une enquête de Libération, affirmant qu’elle avait omis 420.000 euros de bijoux dans ses déclarations de patrimoine.”J’ai rien à régulariser. Je n’ai jamais été prise en défaut sur aucune déclaration. Donc c’est pas aujourd’hui que ça va commencer”, avait riposté la ministre début mai, précisant qu’elle comptait porter plainte de son côté pour diffamation.sm-cbr-cco-fbe-pgr/lrb