News Summary

France is facing a countrywide strike, as workers are protesting against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62 years. About 200 protests and demonstrations are planned today across the nation. Nearly 60% of the trains between France and Switzerland have been annulled due to the strike, reported Swiss national railway company SBB. Airlines were instructed by DGAC, the French civil aviation authority, to cancel 15% of their flights out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports as air-traffic controllers are on strike. According to the latest mortgage survey conducted by Freddie Mac FRE, all mortgage rates have dropped to record lows. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is at 4.69% with an average 0.7 point for the week ending today. The average was 4.75% in the last week and 5.42% in the prior year. Freddie Mac’s chief economist Frank Nothaft said, "Mortgage rates for all but traditional 1-year ARMs hit all-time record lows this week in our survey while activity in housing market slowed in May following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit.” iPhone 4 made a debut in Japan. The eagerness of Japanese customers to acquire Apple’s AAPL new handset is reflected in the fact that some buyers waited in a queue for three days to buy it. It is clear that Apple has rewritten the rules of this market, with enormous iPhone enthusiasm seen in Japan, which was once considered an almost impenetrable market for foreign handset making companies. Shares of AAPL were trading at $270.49, down 0.18%, at 12:05 pm. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.