
Brazil’s 2018/19 soybean crop forecast was cut to 116.9 million tons on Wednesday from 121.4 million tons late in November, said consultancy AgRural, blaming extreme heat and a dry spell in southern areas for the smaller projection.

The World Bank lowered its growth estimates for Brazil both in 2018 and this year. Last June the multilateral organization bi-annual report indicated that Latin America's largest economy would advance 2.4%, but it has now reduced that to 1.2%, one of the greatest falls for any country in the report.

Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro reaffirmed his rejection of a global migration pact, saying decisions about who was able to come into his country need to be sovereign. His comments, posted in a series of messages on his Twitter account, reinforced Bolsonaro's declaration before he took office last week that he was going to pull Brazil out of the migration compact that was endorsed by the UN General Assembly in December.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) delayed several major U.S. and world crop reports because of the two-week-old partial government shutdown, the agency said on Friday. New release dates for the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report and other data originally scheduled for Jan. 11 will be set once government funding is restored, USDA said.

Latin American stocks in the region's main markets closed on Tuesday at new highs on the positive outlook for the ongoing US/China trade talks in Beijing. Brazil's Bovespa index ended trading above 92,000 points for the first time ever after hitting several record highs last week.

A Brazilian man facing allegations of bribing officials at state-run oil company Petrobras on behalf of Vitol Group, Glencore and other major oil trading firms has been arrested in the United States, authorities said Tuesday.

Car and light truck sales in Brazil went up 13.6% in 2018 from the previous year, cementing the industry’s gradual recovery from a deep recession. Brazil was one of the world’s five biggest auto markets until a recent downturn and, despite last year’s growth, numbers remain lower than at their peak in 2012.

Brazil’s Economy Ministry denied that the government would pay US$ 14 billion to state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA to settle a dispute over an oil-producing zone off the Brazilian coast known as the transfer-of-rights area.

The Sao Paulo Shimbun newspaper has printed its final edition, ending a 72-year run as a vital reference point and voice for Brazil’s several million Japanese community — the largest in the world outside of Japan.

The head of Brazil's environmental protection agency has resigned following criticism from the country's newly inaugurated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.