America

It slows up employment in the private sector excluding agriculture in the United States. In April, there was an increase of 156 thousand units, against 194,000 units in March (the preliminary figure was 2,145,000). Growth was well below market expectations, which were for an increase of 196 thousand units.

The figure was announced by Automated Data Processing (ADP), which each month publishes this report on the labor market on the basis of the aggregate data received from the private sector. This report precedes the official of the Department of Labour, which will be published Friday.

After the lighthouse operation switched from Brussels and the strong opposition of the US Justice Department, Halliburton has renounced the merger plan announced last November, amounting to 35 billion dollars.

The deal was judged by the European Commission too dangerous because it might impede effective competition in violation of the Merger Regulation. The operation that would put together the second and third largest players in the sector, could eliminate the third leader Schlumberger. Even for the US antitrust service, the acquisition would undermine competition in the oil services sector, resulted in higher prices and reduced innovation in the oil services sector.

Comcast buys DreamWorks Animation to $ 41 per share in a deal a total value of $ 3.8 billion (3.35 billion euro at current exchange rates). This was stated by NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast, in a statement.

The transaction, which will bring the change of ownership for the company co-founded by Steven Spielberg, is expected to close later this year. For Comcast, the largest cable television provider in the United States and the control of NBC networks, the expectation is to get stronger in the film industry and to gain market share in China, where the film industry is growing rapidly.

Facebook closed the first quarter with a profit of 77 cents per share, above expectations of analysts betting on 63 cent. Revenues totaled 5.38 billion dollars, above the 5.27 billion dollars expected by the market. The results above expectations push the titles in after hours trading, where do you gain more than 8%.

"We had a good start of the year," says the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, noting that the focus is not on "what Facebook is today, but on what can be and what needs to be for the community. " The social network has closed the first quarter with a net profit doubled to 1.51 billion dollars, compared with 512 million the same period last year. Revenues were up 52%, driven primarily by advertising on mobile devices. Revenues from mobile advertising have represented 82% of the first quarter advertising revenue. According to estimates of the company eMarketer, Facebook will win 12% of the global market from 186.81 billion dollars of digital advertising, an increase compared to 10.7% in 2015.

The Fed still leaves unchanged the interest rates between 0.25% and 0.50%. This decision leaves the door open to a possible rate hike in June. In the statement released Wednesday after the two-day meeting, the Federal Reserve made no reference to the risks posed by the global economic and financial developments, merely communicate that will monitor these developments. A change of language that analysts believe signaling a possible narrow in the coming weeks, at the latest within two months.

Colgate-Palmolive has closed the first quarter with a profit of $ 533 million, or 59 cents per share, down slightly from 542 million, or 59 cents per share for the same period last year. Eliminating from the accounts by non-ordinary items the profit amounted to 63 cents per share, centering the expectations of employees to lavori.In decline, by 7.5%, revenues to 3.76 billion dollars, slightly better than the 3 , 75 billion expected by analysts.

In the first quarter of 2016 the US GDP grew at an annualized pace "only" 0.5%. It’s what emerges from the first reading of the data released by the US Commerce Department. The result is lower than the expectations of analysts who expected an improvement of 0.7% in the first three months of this year.

The economy of the United States, therefore, begins to slow down after the 1.4% achieved in the last quarter of 2015. The one recorded in the months January-March is the slower pace of expansion for two years.

MasterCard, operator of the world’s second-largest payments network, ended last quarter with a profit of 959 million dollars, or 86 cents per share, down from 1.02 billion, or 89 cents per share, in the same period the previous year.

Analysts’ expectations have been exceeded, which included earnings per share of 85 centesimi.I income rose to 2.45 billion dollars from 2.23 billion 12 months earlier and exceeding expectations of $ 2.38 billion.