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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 →
Brazil’s sovereign wealth fund has started reducing its stake in Banco do Brasil SA as the government prepares to possibly tap the fund to help meet its fiscal target, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Shares dropped the most on the Ibovespa index. The sovereign fund sold 1 million shares of Banco... 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
A visit to Brazil by officials from Moody’s Investors Service raised the specter of a credit-rating cut for Latin America’s largest economy, sending stocks and the currency lower. Brazil is rated two levels above high-yield junk with a negative outlook by both Fitch Ratings and Moody’s. Standard & Poor’s cut the country’s rating to the... Continue Reading →
Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total SA weren’t among the nine bidders that presented offers in final stage of Mexico’s first oil auction Wednesday, the National Hydrocarbons Commission announced in Mexico City. There were no bidders for the first block auctioned.
Market sources report that Petrobras is negotiating the sale of its gas pipeline transportation assets, Trasportadora Associada de Gás - TAG. The company is offering two models - sale of 49% minority stake and operate or sale of 80% majority stake and let buyer operate. market sources say that the 80% sale has interested parties while... Continue Reading →
A Brazilian court approved a debtor-in-possession loan to engineering firm OAS SA, the company said, after it earlier this year filed for bankruptcy protection in the wake of a corruption investigation that shut its access to refinancing. In a statement published late on Tuesday, OAS said judge Daniel Carnio Costa freed up the so-called DIP... Continue Reading →
Brazil’s real fell for a second straight day amid speculation the nation will struggle to avoid a credit-rating downgrade as efforts to pare budget deficits face opposition from lawmakers. Read More
BHP Billiton Ltd.’s $20 billion foray into U.S. shale gas continues to sour as the world’s biggest mining company revealed it plans a further impairment charge. It will take a $2.8 billion writedown, most of it on the Hawkville field in Texas, Melbourne-based BHP said Wednesday. That brings BHP’s pretax charges on its U.S. shale... Continue Reading →
