|
Latin American markets were mixed to lower on the session, as Brazil pulled back, while Mexico and Argentina posted mild advances. Following a string of consecutive gains in Brazil, investors took some profits.
Also, crude oil prices surged to nearly US$ 65 a barrel, which pressured U.S. markets and possibly Brazil, as the country is a net importer of oil. Some major Brazilian financial releases were also in focus.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa Index receded 174.52 points, or 0.64%, while Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index rose 29.24 points, or 0.20%. Argentina's Merval Index advanced 5.19 points, or 0.35%.
Brazil turned lower, following a recent string of gains, which prompted investors to book some profits. Some major financial results were in focus.
On the economic front, the Getúlio Vargas Foundation said that the General Price Index, or IGP-M, declined 0.36% in the first 10 days of August, compared to a 0.09% slide in the first 10 days of July.
Meanwhile, consumer prices dipped 0.16% in the first 10 days of this month versus a 0.02% increase in the same period during July.
On the earnings front, AmBev posted a second-quarter net profit of 305.2 million reais from 265.1 million reais a year ago, amid upbeat sales performance in its main unit in Brazil.
Revenues leapt 69.8% to 3.70 billion reais from 2.18 billion reais last year, while EBITDA surged 93% to 1.42 billion reais from 735 million reais. The beverage titan's sales volume advanced 13.3% in Brazil in the second quarter versus last year.
Electric power utility CPFL Energia SA said that its second-quarter net profits were aided by higher consumption, more customers and increased prices.
The firm's net profit jumped to 235 million reais from 136.8 million reais, while EBITDA was 554.2 million reais, up from 427.2 million reais. Net revenue advanced to 1.94 billion reais from 1.74 billion reais.
Within the mining group, Caemi announced a substantial jump in its second-quarter profit to 473.9 million reais from 171.6 million reais, as net revenue surged to 1.47 billion reais from 708.1 million reais.
Higher mineral ore prices bolstered the most recent results. EBITDA totaled 956.7 million reais, compared to 378 million reais, while EBITDA margin was 65% versus 53% in the corresponding period a year ago.
Steel titan CSN posted a slightly lower second-quarter profit of 419 million reais from 424 million reais a year ago, due to a fall in local steel consumption due to a drop in global steel prices. Still, EBITDA advanced to 1.21 billion reais from 1.18 billion reais. CSN's net revenue slipped to 2.55 billion reais from 2.56 billion reais.
Mexican issues once again posted a record-high close. In M&A activity, America Movil bought Telecom Italia Mobile SpA's Peruvian unit for 407 million euros.
In other corporate news, Grupo Mexico's U.S. Asarco unit filed for bankruptcy protection. Asarco is in the middle of a strike by unionized workers that has reduced operating capacity down to 50%. Shares of Grupo Mexico surged in response.
Meanwhile, last night, Wal-Mart de Mexico said that its July same-store sales jumped 7.5% from a year earlier, while total sales surged 21.4% to 13.11 billion pesos. Separately, a major investment bank downgraded the retailer to "peer perform" from "outperform."
Argentine shares also moved higher, ahead of earnings from Telecom Argentina, due out later this evening. Power generator Central Puerto swung to a second-quarter net profit of 4.8 million pesos, reversing a year-earlier loss of 47.1 million pesos, as sales jumped to 170.9 pesos from 128.7 million pesos. The firm's operating profit totaled 6.5 million pesos, compared to a loss of 1 million pesos last year.
Thomson Financial Corporate Group - www.thomsonfinancial.com
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
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.