Argentina’s credit rating was cut one level by Standard & Poor’s, which referred to a US appeals court ruling that prevents the country from honouring its debt without also paying holders of its defaulted bonds.
Bank of America is being sued for 1bn dollars for alleged mortgage fraud. The civil lawsuit has been brought by the US Attorney Preet Bharara, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, New York.
A worst-in-a-generation drought from stretching across the United States is damaging crops and rural economies and threatening to drive food prices to record levels. Agriculture, though a small part (1.2%) of the 15.5 trillion dollars US economy, had been one of the most resilient industries in the past three years as the country struggled to recover from the recession.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its forecast for Brazil’s economic growth and said it expects the central bank to cut interest rates more than it previously expected as global financial turmoil weighs on confidence in Latin America’s biggest economy.
US bank JPMorgan lowered Latin America’s growth estimate for 2012 from 3.9% to 3.5% mainly because of the impact of the slower EU and US economies, even when the Latam reduction is less than in other regions of the world.
Uruguay is considered a solid candidate to obtain “investment grade” given its strong economic fundamentals and these same factors make the country’s bonds issued in indexed units, UI, an attractive investment, according to a report from the investment bank JP Morgan published in the Montevideo press.
Brazil plans to sell bonds in international markets in coming weeks, taking advantage of the lowest borrowing costs since October 2007, Treasury Secretary Arno Augustin said.