OPEC agreed to cut production for the first time in eight years, according to a delegate briefed on the matter, sending oil prices more than 6 percent higher as Saudi Arabia and Iran wrong-footed traders who expected a continuation of the pump-at-will policy the group adopted in 2014. In two days of round-the-clock talks in Algiers,... Continue Reading →

Brazilian Senator Gleisi Hoffmann and her husband, who both served in the ousted government of former President Dilma Rousseff, were indicted on Tuesday by the Supreme Court on corruption and money laundering charges in the Petrobras graft investigation. Hoffmann, who was chief of staff to Rousseff during her first term, and husband Paulo Bernardo, will... Continue Reading →

Oil services company Weatherford International LLC [WEATH.UL] (WFT.N) has agreed to a $140 million penalty to settle charges it inflated earnings by using deceptive income tax accounting, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday. Two Weatherford senior accounting executives at the time also agreed to settle charges that they were behind the scheme,... Continue Reading →

Brazil’s real declined as speculation that economic reforms may be harder to push through congress as a corruption investigation ensnares top politicians outweighed a rally in commodities. The real lost 0.1 percent to 3.2478 per dollar at 4:21 p.m. in Sao Paulo after strengthening as much as 0.7 percent. In a new phase of the... Continue Reading →

Brazil’s central bank increased its forecast for this year’s current account gap as a stronger currency weighs on the country’s trade surplus and the economy begins to recover. The deficit in the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, was forecast at $18 billion this year, wider than the $15 billion gap... Continue Reading →

Brazilian police arrested Antonio Palocci Filho, who served as finance minister and chief of staff under former presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, as part of the so-called Carwash probe that has shaken the country’s business and political elite. Prosecutors said in a statement there is evidence that Palocci interfered in decisions taken by... Continue Reading →

Maersk Oil may well survive as an independent oil company after being split off from its larger parent. While assets that include a stake in the giant Johan Sverdrup project off Norway will draw suitors, listing the company would make sense, analysts said. AP Moeller Maersk A/S, Denmark’s 112-year-old shipping and energy conglomerate, said Thursday... Continue Reading →