Greece on Thursday faced its second day national strike in less than a week. A call of the two main unions of the country, public sector employees and transport have stopped work to protest against the austerity plan. In Athens, some 30,000 demonstrators marched through the streets, chanting "no sacrifice for the plutocracy.

Transport is paralyzed air traffic and no public hospitals are managed by emergency personnel.

Incidents erupted between dozens of youths and riot police, protesters who threw stones against them. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd of nearly 10,000 people.

The strikers were protesting against the measures which include increases in VAT and affecting the Public Service by the virtual elimination of the 14th month.These measures have been taken by the Socialist government under pressure from the European Union has placed the country under supervision cash advance .

About 200 plainclothes officers, coastguards and firefighters rallied briefly before the start of the event. "The police and other security forces have been particularly affected by these new measures because our salaries are very low," lamented Yannis Fanariote, secretary general of a police union. A policeman earns on average between 1,000 and 1,200 euros per month, weekends and nights included.

Participating in the event "is not strange, because we work like everyone else and we assert our rights," he added.

For unions, it was the Greeks who are paying a disproportionate price for mismanagement."They try to pay for the crisis workers, denounced Yiannis Panagopoulos, head of the main Greek union, the GSEE. "These measures are not effective and will plunge the economy into a deep freeze."

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The Asian market opts for the balance Wednesday. The financial markets of the region remain hesitant, choosing to climb slightly backward or frankly, like yesterday.

In Japan, the Nikkei opened up 0.08% and ended the session at a level almost identical: -0.04% to 10,563.92 points. The Topix, meanwhile, loose at 0.21% closing at 922.44 points. The activity was moderate with 1.62 billion shares traded on the market first.

However, two macroeconomic statistics might have to move markets. The first concerns the orders for machine tools, which fell 3.7% in January compared to the previous month, down less than expected. Similarly, China has announced a third consecutive increase in exports in February. The country recorded a trade surplus of 7.61 billion, an increase of 45.7% compared to February 2009.This is their highest rate in three years. Imports have also risen sharply, from 44.7% a year.

But markets remain very active. The meeting was mainly Japanese saw a further drop of 1.3% of Toyota shares. A new incident involving a Prius has been reported in the United States Tuesday. Experts from the road safety authority of the U.S. have to go to San Diego to inspect the vehicle who escaped the control of its driver payday loans no teletrack .

Asian investors do not follow the rise recorded by the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. Wall Street had ended on a small rise of 0.11%, led by the announcement by Cisco Systems launched a new ultra-powerful router.

Exchanges in the region in a piecemeal

The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong seems impervious to macroeconomic figures published.The Hang Seng index is up 0.02% to 21,215.50 points. The Shanghai Stock Exchange loose his side was 0.32% to finish up 0.52% to 3059.27 points.

The S & P 200 Australian stable points to 4820.

Korea's KOSDAQ takes 0.33% to 1277.10 points. The Bombay Stock Exchange climbed more strongly from 0.64% to 17,161.48 points.

Oil down

Crude oil prices retreated Wednesday in electronic trading in Asia. The barrel of light sweet crude for April delivery dropped 16 cents to 81.33 dollars while the price of Brent North Sea, with identical maturity, lost 20 cents to 79.71 dollars.

Investors now await the release of weekly statistics on the state of stocks of petroleum products in the United States. Analysts expect an eighth consecutive weekly increase of oil reserves by 1.7 million barrels.

McDonald's confirmed again and again his leadership. The giant U.S. fast food announced Monday that its global sales rose 4.8% in February, whereas the same number of stores opened in February 2009. A rise much higher than expected by analysts, who had relied on 2.1%, after rising 2.6% in January and two months of declines in November and December 2009.

By region, buying Big Macs and other products "McDonald's" has improved by 0.6% in the United States, from 5.4% in Europe and 10.5% in Asia – particularly boosted by the celebration of the New Chinese New Year around the area – the Middle East and Africa. Promotional offers on the Nuggets (pieces of fried chicken), breakfast at one dollar and McCaf? have worked well, according to group the 32 guaranteed unsecured personal loan