|
Latin American and, in particular, Brazilian stocks fell again this Thursday, March 9, as ongoing concerns over rising U.S. Treasury yields overshadowed a move by Brazil's central bank to cut local interest rates.
Brazil's Bovespa Index dropped 976.81 points, or 2.62%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index fell 88.25 points, or 0.48%, while Argentina's Merval Index lost 11.30 points, or 0.64%. Brazilian stocks tumbled, extending a recent sell-off, amid continued concerns about the recent rise in U.S. Treasury yields, which has been widely viewed as reflecting expectations of further U.S. interest-rate hikes to contain inflation. Higher U.S. rates tend to divert investment flows away from emerging markets like Brazil and into U.S. fixed-income investments. The Bovespa was initially higher today, however, as investors were cheered by news that Brazil's central bank late yesterday cut the base Selic interest rate by 75 basis points to 16.5%, as expected. It was the sixth consecutive reduction aimed at fueling economic activity. Also, in its accompanying statement, the bank omitted previous warnings about possible inflationary pressures. Further adding to hopes for deeper cuts at the April meeting, three of the nine central bank directors voted yesterday for a cut equal to a full percentage point. Reinforcing hopes the central bank has more room to cut rates, the IBGE reported that Brazil's industrial production fell 1.3% in January from December. Industrial output rose 3.2% in January from the same month a year ago. On the corporate front, Brazil's biggest telecom carrier Telemar said its fourth-quarter net profit rose to 416 million reais from 293 million reais a year earlier, helped by an expansion of the company's mobile and broadband services. Technology group Totvs SA debuted on the Bovespa today. The company raised 400 million reais from the sale of a total of 12.5 million common shares, priced at 32.00 reais per share. Elsewhere, Mexico was unable to hold on to early market gains, and instead opted to follow its recent losing trend. Emerging markets in general have been under pressure recently, as concerns have been brewing regarding rising U.S. interest rates and the potential subsequent impact on global liquidity. In major economic news, the Bank of Mexico said that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.15% in February, growing at a slower pace as energy and agricultural prices eased. The latest result brought the annual rate of inflation down to 3.75% from 3.94% at the end of January. Also, the Finance Ministry reported that Mexico's total exports rose 35.9% in January from a year ago to US$ 19.21 billion, while imports advanced 22.9% to US$ 18.76 billion. The trade surplus was upwardly revised in January to US$ 444 million from US$ 398 million. Argentina followed the broad regional trend and finished in the red, while volume was low. Telecom Argentina, which is scheduled to announce financial results tonight, advanced on word it is moving forward with rate re- negotiations with the government. On the economic front, Di Tella University said that consumer confidence leapt 6.5% in March from last month and advanced 2.5% from a year ago. The most recent result brought the consumer confidence indicator up to an all-time high of 59.9 points. Turning to airlines, APLA and APTA, or unions representing pilots and mechanics, respectively, launched a 24-hour strike against Aerolineas Argentinas after the firm rejected the workers salary proposals. Thomson Financial - 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.