The political crisis engulfing Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff got a lot bigger Thursday, when the man who was both her mentor and predecessor was named as the target of a federal probe into foreign business transactions. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose widespread popularity paved the way for Rousseff’s election in 2010, is... Continue Reading →

Brazil and Canada are among those “most in the firing line” at current prices, Paul Horsnell, the head of commodities research at Standard Chartered in London, said July 13. Brazil’s so-called pre-salt offshore fields, and Canada’s tar sands are “frontier” oil provinces where costs are higher because of their technical complexity or remoteness, he said.... Continue Reading →

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is being investigated by federal prosecutors on allegations of influence peddling in a move that may deepen the country’s political crisis. The real fell. Authorities are probing whether Lula used his influence to help construction company Odebrecht SA win contracts in Panama and Venezuela from 2011 to... Continue Reading →

The speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress said on Thursday he is weighing legal arguments to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, which would be the first ouster of a sitting president in the country in nearly 23 years. Eduardo Cunha, a leader of the PMDB party that is in charge of deciding whether to move... Continue Reading →

Brazil’s political crisis will deteriorate, making it even harder for President Dilma Rousseff to govern the country, said lower house President Eduardo Cunha. “The strain of the political crisis coupled with the economic crisis is eroding the government’s popularity,” Cunha told reporters in Brasilia Thursday. “I see the governability crisis worsening.” Read More

Brazil's Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo pledged on Wednesday to punish any investigators found to have broken the law by using unauthorized bugs or leaking documents to the press while probing corruption at state-run oil firm Petrobras. The landmark probe that has jailed powerful engineering executives and implicated dozens of politicians is coming under scrutiny... Continue Reading →

Itau Unibanco SA is now forecasting Brazil’s economy will contract for a second consecutive year as unemployment continues to rise and the government struggles to contain above-target inflation. Brazil’s largest bank reduced its forecast for next year’s gross domestic product to a 0.2 percent contraction from 0.3 percent growth. It also predicts this year’s recession... Continue Reading →

While the bank said Wednesday that Brazil’s real and the Colombian peso are the most vulnerable, Morgan Stanley is becoming increasingly concerned about the Mexican and Chilean pesos, which it previously expected to outperform. So far this year Latin American currencies have lost 10 percent, a Bloomberg index shows. Read More