Manipulation. The word has been uttered by Andrew Cuomo, the Minister of Justice of the State of New York. The latter accused Bank of America (BofA), the largest bank in the United States, having committed a "huge fraud" during the merger with Merrill Lynch. He said the former BofA CEO Kenneth Lewis and his former chief financial officer Joe Price, while two continued, would have deliberately hidden the huge losses at Merrill Lynch for a massive federal assistance.

This "arrogant maneuver" after Andrew Cuomo, would have allowed BofA to validate the merger by the shareholders. Once the transaction is approved, the management of Bank of America has made public the statement of loss and "manipulated the federal government to save the deal with billions of taxpayer dollars, claiming falsely that it would cease the agreement without assistance.

The bank responded by saying "disappointed" and said its leaders had always been "good faith". The respective lawyers of Kenneth Lewis and Joe Price state that the accusations are baseless.

150 million dollars in penalties

In addition to these criticisms, the SEC, the gendarme of the Exchange in the United States, announced Thursday that the agreement to settle other lawsuits related to the acquisition of Merrill Lynch now amounted to 150 million cash advance payday loan . The first agreement concluded in August 2009 set out the penalties owed by Bank of America to 33 million.

The SEC alleges that BofA for hiding its shareholders having authorized its future subsidiary Merrill Lynch $ 3.6 billion in bonuses despite losses of the latter in 2008.

The new deal announced Thursday provides for further measures to strengthen the bank's procedures, including the stipulation that shareholders will now have their say on remuneration of the management team. It must still be approved by Judge Jed Rakoff, who had refused last summer how the first agreement.

The SEC also announced that the proceeds of the fine will be distributed to shareholders penalized by the actions of the bank.

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Merrill Lynch boosts the results of Bank of America

Finally! After six sessions of declines, the Bourse de Paris displays a better form. In the green at the opening, the CAC 40 – which posted a gain of 0.46% to 3705 points in early trading – has continued to display good orientation to the closing up 1.37% in 3739, 46 points, boosted from 15 hours through the publication of the first estimate of GDP in the United States for the fourth quarter of 2009. She stood at 5.7% (5.4% on average expected).

According to Christian Parisot, head of economic research at Aurel, "this figure is reassuring for markets and for the future." But that rebound is partly 'technical', relativize does. He explained to the tune of 3.4 points from a "stock effect". Croissancedu the fourth quarter will be weaker in the first quarter of 2010, he said.

Markets have also been able to welcome the extension to the head of the Fed Ben Bernanke.In choosing the U.S. Senate is also banking on a continuation of the current monetary policy, marked by very low rates. The news is welcome.

Across the Atlantic, the figures of industrial activity in the Chicago area for January were also pleasantly surprised: ISM index rose to 61.5. Then, ten minutes tardn it was the turn of consumer confidence as measured by the University of Michigan to give pleasure: it has been revised upward to 74.4, reaching its highest level in two years.

The LSE has also finished up Friday, the FTSE-100 index of leading values winning 42.78 points, or 0.83% over the closing Thursday at 5188.52 points. On Wall Street, the trend is still upwards, two hours after opening.

However, we must put this meeting (plus up to 3764.6 points), including a portion of the increase is purely technical: the week, the CAC 40 surrendered 2.2%, and the peak of the last five session was reached Monday at 3831.8 points …And last week it had dropped as much as 4.9% …

European unemployment 10%

This morning, the European Central Bank announced that the M3 had contracted by 0.2% in December from a year in the euro area, less than expected by markets, while private sector credit remained stable.

Unemployment in the eurozone has reached the threshold of 10% in December, its highest level ever reached since the creation of the single currency of eleven years ago, according to data released Friday by the European statistics office Eurostat.

Inflation, which was as expected, has accelerated in January, 1% a year from 0.9% in December, according to a first estimate published by Eurostat this venrdedi.