European Stocks: PagesJaunes, LVMH, Compagnie des Alpes, Total

Yellow Pages (PagesJaunes):JP Morgan’s negative recommendation
JPMorgan lowered its recommendation from neutral to underweight on yellow pages (pagesjaunes) and also lowered its price target on the stock to 3 Euros from 6.2 Euros.

LVMH: Oddo reiterates buy recommendation
Oddo&Cie reiterated its recommendation “to buy” and its target price of 140 euros on French multinational luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. Some of LVMH’s brands are Dior, Givenchy, Kenzo, and Dom Perignon. The group announced the appointment of Spanish Jordi Constans as the new CEO. It will replace Yves Carcelle who is seen as the principal architect of the exceptional success of Vuitton (30% of sales and half of LVMH’s ROP). Jordi Constans, formerly CEO of the Fresh Dairy division of Danone, will take office in 2012.

Compagnie des Alpes: Natixis downgraded
According to market sources, Natixis lowered its recommendation on Compagnie des Alpes to neutral from a buy recommendation. It has also reduced its price target on the stock from 25 euros to 19 euros.

Total buys stake in 3 offshore blocks in Indonesia.
Total has signed an agreement with Talisman Energy (Talisman). The agreement covers the acquisition of interests in three exploration blocks in deep offshore in the Makassar Strait in Indonesia. Total has acquired from Talisban:

A 50% interest in the Sageri Production Sharing Contract (PSC),the remaining rest50% belongs to Talisman.
A 35% interest in the South Sageri PSC, with Talisman (35%) and PTTEP (30%),
A 20% interest in the Sadang PSC, Talisman (40%) and PTTEP (40%).

Eurozone debt crisis, eurobonds:
After several days of rumours over whether Greece will leave the euro zone, France and Germany have reiterated their support for Greece on Wednesday. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are convinced that Greece’s future is in the single currency.

While France and Germany are opposed to the issuance of Eurobonds, the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said in the European Parliament that the EC will soon propose options for the introduction of euro bonds, but nothing will force the member states of the EU to choose this path. During the day, market had welcomed the statements of the European Commission that it would shortly put forward proposals for the introduction of Euro-bonds.

The Italian Parliament gave the final approval to the austerity plan of 54 billion Euros created by the government of Silvio Berlusconi to end the crisis in the euro zone’s third largest economy and to get to a balanced budget by 2013.