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Mexico started its annual program to lock in oil sales for the coming year as a shield against a further drop in prices, three people with direct knowledge said. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are among the banks involved, said the people, who asked not to be... Continue Reading →
A new note from Macquarie's Vikas Dwivedi underscores the challenge now facing offshore projects, saying "Offshore projects even more at risk than U.S. shale." Why? Because the projects' break-even points are much higher, given all the investment that goes into them. Read More
When Marcelo Odebrecht was transferred to prison last week after his company was charged with cheating Petrobras out of R$6.4bn ($1.9bn), he became the latest member of Brazil’s elite to be sucked into the country’s biggest-ever corruption scandal — and also one of the most unusual. The 47-year-old is president and chief executive of Odebrecht — the Brazilian... Continue Reading →
When Standard & Poor’s said on Tuesday it was considering downgrading Brazil’s credit rating by one notch to junk, markets seemed to shrug off the news. After initially touching a 12-year low, Brazil’s currency, the real, finished virtually flat at R$3.36 against the dollar while the Ibovespa benchmark stock index resumed a rally from earlier in the day,... Continue Reading →
Brazilian federal police are investigating potential irregularities in a military program that aims to build a nuclear-powered submarine in partnership with France by 2023, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Wednesday. Folha said police searched for documents that could prove their suspicions of fraud in the program. The search was part of a wider... Continue Reading →
(Reuters) - Brazil's central bank was poised to maintain its aggressive pace of interest rate hikes on Wednesday after a steep cut in fiscal savings targets weakened the real currency and stirred doubts about the government's commitment to help contain price increases. Forty-two out of 55 analysts surveyed by Reuters last week expect the central... Continue Reading →
Brazil will probably lose its investment-grade status from more than one rating agency by end-2016, according to most market participants polled by Reuters after S&P revised the country's outlook to negative on Tuesday. Twenty-three of the 28 respondents believe Standard & Poor's will downgrade Brazil's credit rating to junk status by the end of next... Continue Reading →
The real’s swings between losses and gains was the highest among major currencies as concern Brazil faces a downgrade to junk offset speculation that the central bank will increase borrowing costs by another half-percentage point. The increase in volatility this month added to the risk for investors wanting to take advantage of the highest interest... Continue Reading →
The world’s three biggest shipbuilders posted a combined 4.8 trillion won ($4.1 billion) in operating losses in the second quarter, paying the price for a failed foray into deep-sea oil rigs. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. -- South Korea’s Big Three shipbuilders -- all reported... Continue Reading →
Of the three biggest ratings companies, S&P has taken the toughest stance on Brazil. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have the country rated a notch higher, providing a bigger buffer from the junk-grade threshold. A downgrade by S&P would undo the progress made under former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who led the... Continue Reading →
