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Brazilian and Latin American stocks dipped, Friday, January 20, as investors fretted over the inflationary impact of high oil prices, which surged above US$ 68 a barrel in New York.
Oil prices have been driven higher by recent violence in Nigeria, diplomatic tension over Iran's nuclear program and worries about terrorist attacks. Shares were also pressured by profit taking following strong gains in regional markets. Brazil's Bovespa Index sank 163.54 points, or 0.44%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index dropped 175.22 points, or 0.95%, while Argentina's Merval Index added 0.7 point, or 0.04%. Brazilian stocks slumped, as a further run-up in oil prices prompted investors to take some profits following yesterday's strong gains on enthusiasm over a 75-basis-point cut in interest rates by Brazil's central bank January 18. Rising global oil prices have fueled concerns about increased inflationary pressure in Brazil, which would diminish chances for an acceleration of local interest-rate cuts. In corporate news, the board of directors of aircraft maker Embraer approved the company's reorganization plan for its share structure. Under the plan, Embraer will launch all its stocks on the Novo Mercado on the São Paulo Stock Exchange and American Depositary Shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The restructuring is aimed at increasing company transparency and liquidity. Paper and pulp company Votorantim Celulose e Papel S.A. said it expects a 6% rise in pulp sales in 2006 and a 2% gain in paper sales. Earlier this week, VCP posted net 2005 profits of 549 million reais, down from 790 million reais in 2004. Meanwhile, a major Wall Street bank increased its investment in Itaú in its Latin American model portfolio, citing clear earnings visibility, earnings growth upside and attractive valuation. In other developments, a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Research Institute showed that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has regained some of his lost popularity and would win upcoming elections in a hypothetical matchup against São Paulo Mayor José Serra. The poll indicated that Lula would beat Serra 35% to 31%. Elsewhere, Mexican shares dropped amid a mixed batch of local market news. Citigroup's Mexican unit Banamex said its fourth-quarter net profit fell 13% in the fourth quarter to US$ 399 million. Revenue rose 15% to US$ 1.46 billion. Meanwhile, cement maker Cemex was in focus a day after the U.S. and Mexico reached a trade agreement aimed at resolving the two countries' long-running dispute over cement tariffs. In research, a major investment bank reduced its exposure to Mexican equities to "underweight" from "neutral," saying "Mexico's corporate and economic outlook does not justify the valuation premium it currently enjoys. The bank also upgraded Chilean stocks to "neutral" from "underweight." Argentine issues inched higher, supported by further gains in seamless steel tubemaker Tenaris after the company's shares were upgraded by a major investment bank yesterday to "overweight" from "equal weight." Also helping to keep the market afloat, Petrobras Energia Participaciones climbed after the planning manager of the oil giant's operating unit, Petrobras Energia, was quoted in a local newspaper today as saying the company will invest US$ 261 million in hydrocarbons production this year. That would be a 20% increase from 2005. On the economic front, Argentina's Treasury Secretariat reported that Argentina posted a primary surplus of 19.62 billion pesos for all of 2005. The result for December was a surplus of 23.4 million pesos, compared to a year- earlier deficit of 2.063 billion pesos. Thomson Financial - www.thomsonfinancial.com
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The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
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).