However, U.S. consumers flocked to the doors of department stores, which opened earlier this Black Friday, traditionally the day that launches shopping season in the United States.

The markets were closed yesterday for Thanksgiving. The "Black Friday" is traditionally one of the least active day on Wall Street.

The S & P distribution, up much of the session ends with a loss of 0.84%.Wal-Mart has taken all the same 0.44% to 56.89 dollars.

The Dow Jones lost 25.77 points (0.23%) to 11,231.78 points. The S & P-500 loose 3.12 points (0.27%) to 1158.67 points. The Nasdaq Composite yield 18.57 points (0.75%) to 2441.51 points.

On the whole week, the Dow lost 4.8%, the S & P 4.7% and the Nasdaq 5.1%. This is the largest weekly loss in the S & P in two months.

"It's hard to say we had a session today, since there was virtually no one," said Kevin Kruzenski (KeyBanc Capital Markets).

"The market is oversold and some based on the hope the holiday season, but the general sentiment remains weak.

The Dow Jones lost 1.13% or 134.86 points at 11,770.73 points, while the Standard & Poor's 500, the reference fund managers, gave up 1.68% or 20.78 points to 1,216 , 13 points. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.96% or 51.62 points to 2587.99 points.

There was no very obvious trigger for this downturn.

The automaker said that 2,500 jobs would be lost in the structure functions, while the enrollment decline in production is estimated at 1,000 positions.

In addition 2,500 jobs will be cut in 2012 from the external service providers, for a total of 6,000 posts in less next year.

"These measures (the structures of the group) is to simplify the structures of the group or an adjustment of the load of projects, particularly in trade, marketing, information technology and research and development," said PSA a statement issued after a special meeting of the European group committee.

The group did not specify the impact of these decisions on its workforce in France.

The manufacturer issued Wednesday its second warning in three months on its 2011 results due to degradation of the European car market and supply problems he encountered in the fall.

This could derail the hostile bid launched by Cameco Corp. of Hathor.

The Board of Hathor has recommended that shareholders accept the offer of Rio Tinto, which amounts to 4.15 Canadian dollars per share. Cameco is only that of 3.75 Canadian dollars per share.

The aim of the maneuver is the exploration project "Roughrider", located in the Athabasca region of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

The listing title Hathor was suspended Wednesday morning at the Toronto Stock Exchange.The title Cameco, the first Canadian producer of uranium, was down 3.21% to 20.80 Canadian dollars to 3:20 p.m. GMT, while the action listed Rio Tinto in London declined by 1.09% within minutes of the fence.

In early trade, the Dow was stable (0.04%) to 11,406 points.The Standard & Poor's also (-0.01%) to 1204 points while the Nasdaq composite fell by 0.1% to 2610 points.

The Federal Reserve, which meets Tuesday and Wednesday, is expected to announce steps to further lower the long-term rates by changing its own bond portfolio.

Wall Street has little else to move, in the absence of outside major indicator of housing starts, or major corporate earnings.

The housing starts fell more than expected in August, falling 5% to a seasonally adjusted pace of 571,000 units, according to the Commerce Department (consensus: 590,000 units).

Markets on both sides of the Atlantic do not seem overly unsettled by the decline of Italy by rating agency Standard & Poor's, a decision yet unexpectedly revives the specter of a contagion of debt crisis in the eurozone.

Values, Xilinx lost 2.38% at the opening. The programmable chip maker cut its revenue forecast for the second quarter due to the sluggishness of some of its markets.

Inspectors from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union will hold a conference call Monday with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos to learn what steps will be taken Greece to meet its budget deficit in 2011.

And what a view to release a new bracket with a first bailout of eight billion dollars, an amount that Athens needs by October before being run out of money.

Papandreou has canceled a visit to the United States Saturday to dedicate himself to this task."The board must consider measures ranging from further job cuts in the public sector to new demands on pensions," said a senior government official.

The government attributed the deficit to a deeper recession than expected and decided to impose a new tax on real estate in hopes of gathering around two billion euros annually.

But the "troika", nickname for the inspection mission from the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank (ECB), doubt that this one-time tax on and requires more information on how the government intends to s 'take to begin to redress the public accounts this year and next.

"The troika believes that the recently announced property tax alone will not bridge the budget deficit and press for action on spending or reduce the use and treatment of the public sector," said a second senior government official.

The formation of opposition New Democracy accuses the government to overtax the economy.Its leader Antonis Samaras called Saturday for early elections, saying that the policy takes no action despite the sacrifices required of the population.

"A renegotiation with our donors to stimulate the economy is a condition to get out of this crisis," he said Sunday at a news conference.

"NO ILLUSION"

The international lenders are also concerned about the lack of political consensus on measures to end the crisis.Thus the Conservatives, spurred by a growing popular discontent after two years of austerity, offer them tax cuts and measures for employment development.

Papandreou's Socialists have a majority in parliament, but political scientists say that the quarrels and disturbances may lead to early elections.

The international lenders are skeptical of the effectiveness of an ad hoc measures and tax increases.They are calling for urgent reform, privatization and a slimming the public sector.

In an interview published in the Bild am Sonntag, the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that Greece must have the clear mind about his future in the euro area and must have no illusions about its obligations.

"Belonging to a currency union is an opportunity but also a heavy burden. The measures to align its very difficult and the Greeks must decide whether to bear this burden," he said.

"No one should kid ourselves: without a positive assessment by the troika of the commitments of Greece, the next installment will be paid.So the Greeks must have numbers proving that they stick to the plan. "

The Minister of Economy Baroin recalled his part that the plan of aid to Greece was a loan, not a gift, save for the euro.

"The observers are in place, they continue their work.Greece knows what she has to do it we have said, she has commitments, she has duties vis-à-vis its creditors, it has the requirement to provide answers. "

In the meantime, the Greek newspaper Kathimerini writes that Greece intends to make the country's banks credit guarantees of up to about thirty billion to enable them to access the emergency stop of the central bank.

Excluded from the interbank market, Greek banks have become dependent on the ECB for their refinancing, borrowing in its operations in the money market, in exchange for guarantees in the form of sovereign bonds and other assets.

Excluding a $ 10.6 billion paid for the Irish banks, the deficit was reduced by about two billion euros a year, the ministry said.

Tax revenues reached 20.5 billion euros, representing an increase of 8.3% over the previous year and slightly above the target of 20.3 billion set by the Ministry for the end of August.

Expenses amounted to 29.2 billion euros in the first eight months of the year.

European markets also suffer from renewed concerns about economic growth after the announcement of the first contraction since September 2009 in manufacturing activity in the euro area in August.

At 1:12 p.m., the CAC 40 index fell by 0.94% to 3226.16 points, after opening up 0.5%.Between 19 and 31 August, the benchmark index of the Paris gained almost 8%.

Other major European markets, London drops 0.43%, 1.65% Frankfurt and Milan 1.02%. The pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index yields 1.05%.

"We see now a risk too high to buy, even if prices are low on action," said analyst Valerie Gastaldy Day By Day which sees two possible solutions to this situation.

FIGURES OF THE USE AS CATALYST US

"Let bleed the market one last time and puts the record straight: all asset classes could find correlations normal and then we could build up a good few weeks.Either we are entering a phase of very high dispersion, with a sector rotation and intra-sectoral difficult to anticipate, "she says.

The monthly figures of employment in the United States, which will be announced Friday, could serve as a catalyst, analysts said.

"If the world's largest economy falters, it will have important consequences for the world because U.S. demand may decrease," says Saxo Bank in a note.

"If the figures show that a recession is less and less feasible, then it is likely that the rebound that began this week to continue over an extended period (…) In addition, speculation on future measures the Fed is going well, "added the facility.

Such measures could ultimately weigh on the dollar, many analysts point out, but for now he earns 0.67% against the euro, one euro was trading against 1.4274 dollars.

Illustration of investor caution, the yield on German government bonds to 10 years is down to around 2.17% against 2.22% over the closing Wednesday.

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel and Peabody, the largest U.S. coal, offered 15.66 Australian dollars per share Macarthur, including dividend, about 3.5 billion euros to get their hands on the giant but pulverized coal it considers the offer inadequate.

The Australian group, which must respond by 1 September, said efforts to find a buyer more generous.

"Macarthur said to be in regular negotiations with a number of interested parties in connection with any alternative proposals which could result in a superior offer to shareholders," the group said in a statement.

The action ended on Wednesday Macarthur 15.80 Australian dollars, up 1.15% but slightly above the proposed $ 15.66, suggesting that investors are skeptical of a cons-offer.

Macarthur posted annual results boosted by higher coal and pulverized by a gain on disposal.The annual net income at the end of June, has almost doubled to 241.4 million Australian dollars.

Excluding items, earnings came out of 142.4 million Australian dollars, against 139.1 million the previous year, while the Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S was 144.6 million.

The second half suffered from production interruptions caused by major floods in the region of Queensland. The group plans to return to normal production in early 2012 at the earliest, around 5 to 5.3 million tonnes per year, and hopes to increase it to 9.2 million tonnes by 2014.

"The United States has never been in default and will never be in default," said Biden in a speech to Sichuan in southern China.

China is the largest foreign creditor of the United States. Dollar investments represent about 70% of its foreign exchange reserves, estimated at 3200 billion.

Chinese investment dollars are safe, assured Biden, the fifth and final day of his visit to China.