Challenges : 23% des étudiantes de Polytechnique victimes d'agression sexuelle

23% des étudiantes de Polytechnique victimes d'agression sexuelle durant leur scolarité
Près d'une étudiante sur quatre de l'école Polytechnique déclare avoir été victime d'une agression sexuelle depuis le début de sa scolarité dans l'établissement. Onze tentatives de viol ou viols ont également été recensés.

Près d'une étudiante sur quatre de l'école Polytechnique déclarent avoir été victime d'une agression sexuelle depuis le début de sa scolarité dans l'établissement et onze au total disent avoir été victimes de viol ou de tentatives de viol, selon une enquête réalisée par l'école. Le questionnaire, mené du 19 janvier au 6 février, en concertation avec les étudiants, "fait suite aux agissements commis à CentraleSupélec. On a décidé de réagir immédiatement en lançant une enquête nous-mêmes pour savoir ce qu'il en était à l'école Polytechnique", a dit mardi à l'AFP François Bouchet, directeur général de la prestigieuse école d'ingénieurs, confirmant une information du journal Le Monde.

La direction de CentraleSupélec a saisi la justice l'automne dernier après qu'une enquête menée auprès des élèves avait révélé une centaine d'agressions sexuelles et viols lors de l'année universitaire 2020-2021.

A Polytechnique, le questionnaire a été rempli par environ 2.100 jeunes sur les 3.300 ayant intégré l'X entre 2018 et 2021, "soit plus de 60% de réponses, une très forte participation", note le directeur général. "On se doutait qu'il y aurait des cas de violences sexistes et sexuelles qui remonteraient, de harcèlement, d'exhibitionnisme, de contacts non souhaités car on a aussi une cellule d'écoute qui avait été saisie de certains cas", souligne M. Bouchet.

Selon le sondage, 23% des élèves --très majoritairement des femmes-- disent avoir subi une agression sexuelle lors de leur scolarité: on s'est frotté à elles, on a touché leurs seins, leurs fesses, on les a embrassées contre leur gré. Onze se déclarent victimes d'une tentative de viol ou d'un viol pendant leurs années à Polytechnique. "On est sous le choc, je ne pensais pas que ce questionnaire allait mener jusqu'à recenser des tentatives de viol ou des viols", ajoute M. Bouchet.

"Ces faits révélés d'une grande gravité sont inacceptables. On doit se mobiliser pour que la parole se libère et améliorer encore notre plan d'actions lancé en 2017", a-t-il dit. "Des ateliers sur les violences sexistes et sexuelles vont être rendus obligatoire pour tous les élèves dès juin prochain". "Dès que j'ai connaissance de cas de sexisme, je les traite et je fais tout pour appliquer la tolérance zéro, c'est indispensable", a-t-il encore dit.

Le directeur général a assuré avoir effectué un signalement au procureur de la République sur ces témoignages qui "restent cependant à ce stade malheureusement anonymes", a souligné M. Bouchet.

NY Post : Massive, record-breaking comet is hurtling toward Earth

Massive, record-breaking comet is hurtling toward Earth
The largest comet ever recorded has Earth in its sights.
Measuring an estimated 80 miles across, its icy core is 50 times larger than that of any known comets in history, while its mass — about 500 trillion tons — is still 100,000 times more massive than our typical passing comets, according to new findings published Wednesday in the Astrophysical Journal.
Intimidatingly described by one researcher as “big” and “blacker than coal,” the comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (C/2014 UN271) has spent the past million years hurtling 22,000 miles per hour towards the center of our solar system and is expected to reach just short of Saturn’s orbit by 2031.
However, the record-breaking Bernardinelli-Bernstein is projected to slingshot back towards the Oort Cloud — where it originally hails from — before it reaches Saturn, scientists assure.
The comet made its grand debut in November 2010, when it was still about 3 billion miles from the sun, or about the distance to Neptune. Considering the way it lit up telescopes even then researchers knew it was big, but a new study has revealed a clearer picture of just how enormous Bernardinelli-Bernstein really is, thanks to images provided by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the ALMA telescope in Chile.
The new findings published in the Astrophysical Journal provide a clearer picture of the size of the icy nucleus of C/2014 UN271, the comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein.
Man-To Hui et al 2022 ApJL
Bernardinelli-Bernstein is a billions-of-years-old relic from the chaotic origins of our solar system. Scientists believe it holds clues to the mysterious region of space far beyond Pluto, some 4.6 trillion miles from the sun. Comets of the Oort Cloud are also believed to have been formed much close to our sun before getting thrown out to the far reaches of our solar system — bound for eternity to feel the pull of their former home.

FT : Metal stockpiles shrink as energy prices hit production

Metal stockpiles shrink as energy prices hit production
War threatens Russian output while traders and major consumers tap warehouses

Stockpiles of some of the world’s most important industrial metals have dropped to critically low levels as record power prices in Europe hit production and the war in Ukraine threatens output from Russia.

Inventories of aluminium, copper, nickel and zinc — four of the main contracts traded on the London Metal Exchange — have plunged by as much as 70 per cent over the past year, as traders and big consumers have tapped warehouses for material.

This has come against a backdrop of booming demand as economies have recovered from pandemic lockdown restrictions and supply chain disruptions.

In recent weeks the trend has been most pronounced in zinc, where prices rose 2.8 per cent on Tuesday to a 16-year high of almost $4,400 a tonne. The metal is used as a protective coating for steel in construction, cars and home appliances.

Since the start of the month, available zinc stocks on the LME — metal that has not already been earmarked to leave one of the exchange’s warehouses — have fallen almost 60,000 tonnes to a two-year low of just over 45,000 tonnes.

Analysts say soaring gas and power prices are behind the drawdown. Over the past couple of months, spiralling electricity prices have forced Glencore, Trafigura, Norsk Hydro and others to curtail production at lossmaking zinc and aluminium smelters.

To make up for the production shortfall, some of these companies have been drawing stock from warehouses in and outside the LME system so they can meet contractual obligations with manufacturing clients.

“Current power prices could drive more smelter curtailments, and these decisions may be faster in zinc than for aluminium in the near term,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Marius van Straaten in a recent report, referring to the fact that it is easier to adjust the operating rate of a zinc smelter.

The drop in zinc stocks comes at a sensitive time for the LME, which was forced to suspend trading in nickel last month after a vicious short squeeze sent the price up by more than 250 per cent.

Low stocks can contribute to price spikes on the LME as traders and producers seek to close short positions by repurchasing contracts, rather than by delivering a registered slab of metal from one of the exchange’s warehouses.

Colin Hamilton, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said the latest ex-LME warehouse data would do little to ease fears about another explosive spike in prices.

“The volume of material the LME tracks which is not currently in the system but in adjacent warehouses dropped further for all metals except copper over the course of February, with aluminium down 29 per cent month-on-month to 218,000 tonnes and zinc down 28 per cent month-on-month to just 15,000 tonnes,” he said

Production cuts are just one factor behind the strain in metal markets. Concerns that supplies of copper and nickel from Russia could be disrupted by sanctions have also pushed up prices.

Goldman Sachs reckons the copper could be “sleepwalking towards” running out of copper inventory.

It expects the supply of refined copper to lag demand by 375,000 tonnes this year — double its previous estimate — and large enough to deplete all visible stocks by December.

“We believe investors remain complacent over the risks to Russian copper supply, as they are not as immediate or sharp as those seen in the grains or energy markets, or even aluminium,” Goldman Sachs analyst Nick Snowdon wrote in a report.

FT : EU and Nato keep nervous eye on Marine Le Pen’s bid for French presidency

EU and Nato keep nervous eye on Marine Le Pen’s bid for French presidency
Far-right candidate wants to rein in Brussels’ power and take Paris out of military alliance’s command structures

There was a moment of relief for policymakers across the EU and Nato when President Emmanuel Macron won the most votes in the first round of the French election against far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.

But while Macron’s lead ahead of the April 24 run-off has eased acute concerns among officials in Brussels and across Europe, the potential remains for France to elect a president who wants to pull the country out of Nato’s military structures, tear up reams of EU legislation and restore relations with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“I am very worried about it, I hope that we won’t get Le Pen as president of France,” Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn said this week, in a rare public rebuke of her candidacy by a foreign official — but a refrain heard regularly behind closed doors. “The French need to prevent this,” he said, adding that her victory “would not only mean a break away from the core values of the EU, it would totally change its course”.

While Le Pen has moderated her views on the EU since she was comfortably defeated by Macron in 2017, and no longer advocates leaving the EU or the euro single currency, she has called for a looser “Europe of Nations” and many of her legislative positions would undermine or breach Brussels’ treaties.

As a former member of the European parliament, her populist economic views on state aid and the lowering of domestic taxes on consumer goods would break EU free market regulations, much like her other policy pledges on immigration, trade and the supremacy of French law over the bloc.

That particular aspect of her presidential manifesto had long been a cause for concern inside the European Commission, EU officials said, given the substantial boost her presidency would give other countries such as Poland and Hungary which have challenged the supremacy of EU law, and are locked in longstanding judicial tussles with the bloc.

It would also likely derail the Franco-German relationship that has defined much of recent EU policymaking and steered the bloc’s development, and lead to potential gridlock, analysts said.

“From Marine Le Pen’s programme it is clear that she is more in favour of a Europe of Nations, for taking competences away from the EU, for taking into account the identity of individual nation states,” said Jacek Czaputowicz, Poland’s former foreign minister, in an interview with TV station Polsat News.

Despite his victory in the first round of voting, the liberal, strongly pro-EU Macron still faces a tight re-election battle, given that Le Pen’s protectionist economic policies and Euroscepticism are viewed as appealing to a large proportion of voters who backed other candidates in the first round.

Nato, the US-led military alliance, also stands to be dramatically overhauled by a Le Pen victory. The 53-year-old has vowed to withdraw France from Nato’s integrated military command structure, a step that would remove French troops and weapons from the pool of assets under alliance command.

That would represent a significant weakening of the alliance. France, which rejoined Nato command structures under president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009, boasts the alliance’s third-largest military forces and fourth-largest defence budget, and is the most important military power inside the EU.

While Macron himself has caused his own share of angst among Nato allies — referring to the alliance’s state of “brain death” in 2019 and advocating an EU-led military presence to reduce the continent’s reliance on US firepower — he has recently restated his support for the military pact in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Officials inside the military alliance said there was no sense of acute panic but that the run-off was being watched very closely, given the potential ramifications for Nato at a time of conflict in Ukraine and heightened fears of aggression by Moscow against Nato members.

Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, said president Le Pen “would be bad news for France’s relations with its EU and Nato partners, but good news for Putin”.

While Le Pen has voiced support for western sanctions against Russia in response to Putin’s invasion, she has said she sees Moscow as “a great power” that “could become an ally of France again” after the war ends.

Le Pen’s ties to Russia predate a 2014 loan from a Russian bank to her party, and her visit to meet Putin in the Kremlin ahead of the 2017 election.

“We must all rally behind Emmanuel Macron,” said Michael Roth, Germany’s former Europe minister and now chair of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee. “It’s either him or the downfall of a united Europe. It sounds a bit dramatic but that’s the way it is.”

FT : Generali/Caltagirone: blurred lines bring voting practices under scrutiny

Generali/Caltagirone: blurred lines bring voting practices under scrutiny
Safest course for minorities is to assume low-cost derivatives may feature in the strategies of both factions

Buying votes is illegal and immoral in politics. In business, the lines are blurred. Investors have long been able to split voting rights from their economic interests. The practice of “empty voting” is back in the spotlight in the battle for control of Generali, Italy’s largest insurer.

Two warring groups are involved: an establishment faction and a rebel alliance. The fight has personal undertones. It will create sore losers, whoever wins. Minorities should inspect claims from both camps sceptically.

Chief executive Philippe Donnet leads the establishment faction. This is backed by the board and Generali’s largest shareholder Mediobanca. The investment bank, whose boss is the urbane Alberto Nagel, holds 12.8 per cent of Generali’s shares. It has borrowed further votes worth 4.4 per cent, boosting its voting power to 17.2 per cent.

Critics howl that this is fast practice. Dispassionately, Lex believes vocal investors are most convincing when they hold unleveraged long positions in cash equities. That aligns them with the minorities they hope to sway. Low-cost prime broking jiggery pokery does not.

The rebel alliance is not beyond reproach here. This faction is led by construction mogul Francesco Caltagirone. He wants ex-Goldman banker Claudio Costamagna and Generali lifer Luciano Cirinà to run the insurer. With the support of eyewear mogul Leonardo del Vecchio and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, Caltagirone controls 17.4 per cent.

Filings last year showed that 1.7 per cent of Caltagirone’s stake involved a so-called “equity collar”. Typically, this involves an activist investor buying a put option to cap their downside to shares, paid for by selling a call option. The put represents cheap collateral they can borrow against.

Caltagirone would doubtless say this was just a prudent hedge. The safest course for minorities is to assume low-cost derivatives may feature in the strategies of both factions. They should instead focus on who will benefit most from different voting outcomes, starting with themselves. Lex will aim to answer that question in another note closer to the vote at the end of this month.

FT : Fed’s Barkin Says Economy May Be Shifting to Higher Inflation Regime

Fed’s Barkin Says Economy May Be Shifting to Higher Inflation Regime
Richmond Fed president says the central bank may need to tighten monetary policy more often

The Federal Reserve may be facing more persistent inflation pressures that could mean interest rates will be higher than in recent years, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said Tuesday.

“There are a few reasons to think we may face more headwinds when it comes to containing inflation going forward,” Mr. Barkin said in a speech text.

“We may need to navigate in the context of more medium-term inflationary pressure than we have experienced during the Great Moderation,” he added, referring to cooling levels of inflation in recent decades.

Mr. Barkin, who is not currently a voting member of the rate setting Federal Open Market Committee, said this potential regime shift could affect monetary policy, though the Fed’s 2% inflation target would remain in place and the central bank would still have the ability to meet that goal.

In the face of more persistent inflation pressures, the Fed’s “efforts to stabilize inflation expectations could require periods where we tighten monetary policy more than has been our recent pattern,” Mr. Barkin said.

“Inflationary pressure puts constantly on the table the potential for a trade-off between employment and inflation, our dual mandate goals,” he added, suggesting the effort to cool inflation could push up unemployment.

Higher longer term inflation could come from different factors, among them a retreat from globalized supply chains, changing demographics reducing the number of available workers, geopolitical events and headwinds related to government spending, Mr. Barkin said.

In the near term, he offered support for the Fed’s effort to bring inflation down with interest rate increases.

“With inflation persisting and broadening, we see clearly that it is time to normalize our monetary policy stance,” Mr. Barkin said. “How far we will need to raise rates in fact won’t be clear until we get closer to our destination, but rest assured we will do what we must to address this recent bout of above-target inflation. And this commitment does not necessarily require a hard landing.”

Mr. Barkin said he was upbeat about the current state of the U.S. economy, citing a strong job market and solid levels of demand.

>>> US After Hours Summary: NSTG -30.2% falls on weak guidance; PYPL -1.6% CFO t

After Hours Summary: NSTG -30.2% falls on weak guidance; PYPL -1.6% CFO to become Walmart CFO; AFMD +5.3% trades higher

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: MXCT +1.9% (also CFO departs), ASH +1.3% (provides upbeat preliminary MarQ results; reiterates FY22 outlook)

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: AFMD +5.3% (stock offering), GRTS +5.1% (presentations at AACR support expertise in neoantigen vaccine), ORIC +4.3% (presents promising preclinical data on three programs), SB +2.2% (to acqurie vessel for $30 mln), BCTX +1.9% (presents development details of Bria-OTS Platform technology), SLGC +1% (announces journal publication of landmark proteomics study), ANGI +0.7% (reports monthly metrics for March), HONE +0.6% (authorizes new share repurchase program equating to 5% of shares outstanding), PSX +0.6% (names new CEO), AMC +0.5% (finalizes deal with Bow Tie Cinemas to purchase and operate seven locations), PG +0.4% (increases dividend), CABO +0.1% (names new CFO)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: NSTG -30.2% (lowers Q1 product and service revenue guidance), NTNX -0.2% (reaffirms AprQ and FY22 guidance; also names new CFO)

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: LQDA -12% (stock offering), HLMN -8.1% (commences 10 mln share offering by selling stockholders; also guides Q1 revenue above consensus), TPTX -3.2% (announces positive topline data for Repotrectinib), SQSP -2% (CFO to resign), PYPL -1.6% (PayPal CFO John Rainey to become Walmart CFO), OR -0.9% (provides preliminary deliveries update for Q1), CTS -0.1% (to acquire Ferroperm Piezoceramics for Danish Krone 525 mln in cash), NE -0.1% (provides update on ongoing merger control process)

>>> US Close Dow -0.26% S&P -0.34% Nasdaq -0.30%

Closing Stock Market Summary

The S&P 500 declined 0.3% on Tuesday, fading an early 1.3% gain that was rooted in hopes that inflation rates could be peaking. The Nasdaq Composite (-0.3%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.3%) followed similar price action, while the Russell 2000 (+0.3%) eked out a gain. 

Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors closed lower after each spent time in positive territory during the day. The financials (-1.1%) and health care (-1.0%) sectors declined at least 1.0%, while the energy (+1.7%), utilities (+0.4%), and consumer discretionary (+0.2%) sectors closed higher. 

Early in the day, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for March was being construed as a sign of peak inflation and a corresponding excuse to rally. Total CPI rose 1.2% m/m, as expected, while core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased by just 0.3% (Briefing.com consensus 0.5%).

The fast start for the market was further supported by technical factors as the S&P 500 temporarily reclaimed its 50-day moving average (4424) and short-covering activity among investors caught off guard by the market's positive reaction to the CPI data. 

The rally excuse also pertained to the Treasury market, where the 2-yr yield subsequently dropped 11 basis points to 2.39% and the 10-yr yield dropped six basis points to 2.73%. The U.S. Dollar Index topped the 100.00 level (100.31, +0.37, +0.4%) for its ninth-straight advance. 

Unfortunately, the stock market proceeded to drift lower the rest of the day amid a lack follow-through buying interest and a violation of the S&P 500's 50-day moving average. The benchmark index closed below the key technical level. 

The nervous price action was presumably tied to a recognition that the Fed is poised to hike rates by 50 basis points next month, underlying growth concerns, uncertainty regarding corporate guidance this earnings season, and disappointing earnings reactions in CarMax (KMX 93.33, -9.84, -9.5%) and Albertsons (ACI 31.97, -2.81, -8.1%). 

Oil prices reclaimed $100.00 per barrel ($100.69, +6.53, +6.9%), which was cited as an additional drag on sentiment, although the rebound corresponded with the good news that Shanghai started to relax some COVID-19 restrictions. 

American Airlines (AAL 17.13, +0.16, +0.9%), meanwhile, provided a lift for the airline industry after raising its Q1 revenue guidance. As a reminder, JPMorgan Chase (JPM 131.54, -1.46, -1.1%) will report earnings prior to Wednesday's open. 

Reviewing Tuesday's economic data:

  • Total CPI increased 1.2% month-over-month in March, as expected, while core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased a smaller-than-expected 0.3% (consensus 0.5%). That left total CPI up 8.5% year-over-year, the highest 12-month increase since December 1981, and core CPI up 6.5% year-over-year, the highest 12-month increase since August 1982.
    • The key takeaway from the report is that it is subject to widening interpretations. The popular narrative is that it's hard to believe things will get any worse; therefore, this report is "good" because it must mark peak inflation. The less popular, but practical, narrative is that this report reveals a broadening in inflation pressures that will push the Fed to raise rates by 50 basis points at the next FOMC meeting.
  • The Treasury Budget showed a $192.7 bln deficit in March versus a $659.6 bln deficit in the same period a year ago. The budget data is not seasonally adjusted, so the March deficit cannot be compared to the February deficit of $216.6 bln.
    • The budget deficit over the last 12 months is $1.74 trln versus a deficit of $2.20 trln in February.
  • The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for March decreased to 93.2 from 95.7 in February.

Looking ahead, investors will receive the Producer Price Index for March and the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index on Wednesday. 

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average -5.8% YTD
  • S&P 500 -7.7% YTD
  • Russell 2000 -11.5% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite -14.5% YTD