International News

  Bloomberg Colombia’s economy grew at the slowest pace since 2009 in the first three months of the year as consumer confidence slumped and prices fell for the nation’s oil, coal and coffee. The weaker-than-expected result caused bond yields to drop as traders pared bets on further interest rate increases. Gross domestic product expanded 2.5 percent from the year earlier, ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer will prioritize infrastructure concessions this year as a way to showcase an improving political environment and rule of law, before offering stakes in state companies in 2017. Several highways and airports are almost ready to be put up for tender. Such deals are less controversial than those involving strategic assets, like units of ...

  Bloomberg For bond traders, the stalling U.S. job market means the Federal Reserve will probably lift interest rates just once this year, in December. The nation’s employers added workers at the slowest pace in almost six years in May, government data showed. The report fueled a surge in Treasuries, driving yields on two-year notes down the most since September ...

  Bloomberg Investors should sell Mexico’s peso and buy dollars and euros amid a widening current account deficit in Latin America’s second-largest economy, according to Citigroup Inc. While Mexico’s peso has tumbled the most among major currencies this year on bets that higher borrowing costs in the U.S. will reduce the appeal of riskier assets, Citigroup says that local economic ...

  Bloomberg Prudential Financial Inc. says debt from Latin America is still attractive after a rally this year, with bonds from PetroleosMexicanos SA and sovereign securities from Argentina among the most alluring options. David Bessey and Cathy Hepworth, money managers who help oversee $26 billion in emerging-market debt at Prudential Financial, said that the extra yield investors get to own ...

  Bloomberg Coca-Cola Co. and bottler Coca-Cola Femsa SAB agreed to buy Unilever’s AdeS soy-based beverage business for about $575 million, expanding the beverage giant’s sales of non-soda drinks and boosting its business in Latin America. After the takeover is completed, AdeS will become part of the non-carbonated beverage platforms that Coca-Cola Femsa and Coca-Cola share in its franchise territories, ...

  Bloomberg The Federal Reserve should raise interest rates gradually despite weak jobs data, Fed Cleveland Bank President Loretta Mester said. U.S. economic growth is picking up, inflation is moving toward target and the country is at full employment, Mester told reporters in Stockholm on Saturday. “I still believe that in order to achieve our monetary policy goals a gradual ...

  Los Angeles / AFP He called himself “The Greatest,” and few disagreed. Muhammad Ali — who died on Friday in Arizona at age 74 — was one of the iconic sporting heroes of the 20th century, the three-time heavyweight champion of the world who said he could “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Ali, who came of ...

  Bloomberg The world’s food-import bill is set to tumble to a seven-year low in 2016 as a decline in grain prices and lower freight rates more than compensate for increased imports, according to the United Nations. Countries around the globe will probably spend $986 million importing food this year, the first drop below $1 trillion since 2009, the UN’s ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s industrial output unexpectedly rose in April, adding to indications that Latin America’s largest economy is close to hitting bottom. Production rose 0.1 percent in April after a 1.4 percent jump in March, the national statistics agency said on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro. That surprised all but one of the 37 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, whose median ...