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Brazilian and Latin American shares rebounded strongly from recent selling pressure. Additionally, U.S. stocks posted robust gains, after falling to their lowest levels in recent months yesterday, as investors were emboldened by data showing a sharp rise in crude oil inventories.
On the economic front, U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product showed 3.8% growth in the final reading, unchanged from the previous estimate.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa Index advanced 627.70 points, or 2.43%, while Mexico' s benchmark Bolsa Index firmed 71.62 points, or 0.57%. Argentina's Merval Index surged 53.35 points, or 3.96%.
Brazilian issues climbed sharply, amid bargain hunting following declines Tuesday that took the benchmark Ibovespa index down 1.58%. Brazilian equities have been sliding since mid-February, which analysts blame primarily on rising U.S. Treasury bond rates.
However, analysts reported that the stage may now be set for a rebound, with both foreign and domestic funds eager to rebuild their blue-chip portfolios. Also, utility stocks rallied following the Brazilian government's authorization of rate hikes for utilities.
CVRD announced that it has signed a new six-year contract with Qatar Iron and Steel Company to sell OASCO up to 2.66 million tons of iron ore pellets from 2005 through 2010.
Although the stock is 17% off its February record high, an influential brokerage named several reasons to still buy CVRD shares, including a likely doubling of the firm's EBITDA this year due to a spike in iron ore prices.
Also, the brokerage noted that CVRD's current share price is below the iron ore price hike levels, and demand for metals in most developing countries is likely to be robust. Buyers were active in response.
Shares of AmBev jumped. Yesterday, the company's European parent, InBev, offered Brazilian shareholders of AmBev the option of swapping their shares for those of InBev or selling their AmBev shares for cash. Traders indicated that investors were roughly divided between cash and swaps.
Also, Embraer was in focus after stating Tuesday that its net cash position at the end of the year is projected to surge to US$ 400 million from US$ 22 million at the close of 2004.
Also, a major investment house said there could be upside to Embraer's aircraft delivery forecast of 145 both this year and next "if we see increased order activity during the second half of the year."
Turning to economic data, the Brazilian General Price Index, or IGP-M, advanced 0.85% in March, exceeding the 0.30% increase in February, the independent Getúlio Vargas Foundation said. That result was in line with estimates between 0.65% and 0.90%.
Elsewhere, Mexican bourses rose after five straight losing sessions, aided by a surge in the U.S. market. On the heels of a rise to record levels earlier this month, the market has succumbed to profit taking that many analysts viewed as overdue following the months-long advance.
While some analysts have cited external pressure for the declines, including weakness in U.S. and other regional shares and rising interest rates, local political developments also continue to weigh on Mexican stocks.
In the news, a legislative committee has postponed until Friday a recommendation to Congress on whether to strip Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of political immunity.
Such a vote could expose the popular mayor to criminal charges in a land dispute, upsetting his chances to run for president in 2006's presidential elections.
Lopez Obrador denies ignoring a judge's order for the city government to halt the construction of a road on a piece of expropriated land and claims the government is using the incident to try to keep him from running in the presidential election.
Meanwhile, Argentine receipts leapt, following recent declines, as investors took a favorable view of a U.S. court ruling. Late Tuesday, a U.S. court judge agreed to keep US$7 billion in defaulted bonds frozen until a U.S. federal appeals court can also consider the case.
However, Argentina's Economy Ministry said in a brief statement last night that it was "satisfied" with the ruling, adding it hopes the appeals court will make a speedy decision so officials can meet their April 1st target to issue the new bonds under the restructuring.
Thomson Financial Corporate Group
www.thomsonfinancial.com
PRNewswire
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
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