Bloomberg Oil climbed above $45 a barrel in New York for the first time since November after U.S. industry data showed a decline in crude stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed as much as 2.5 percent, extending a gain of 3.3 percent Tuesday. Inventories dropped by 1.07 million barrels last week, the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute was said to …

  Bloomberg Brazil’s Real advanced as the central bank refrained from intervening to weaken the currency for the third straight session and amid speculation former bank chief Henrique Meirelles would become finance minister if President Dilma Rousseff is ousted. The currency gained 0.4 percent to 3.5165 per dollar as of 9:02 a.m. in Sao Paulo, extending its gain this year …

  Bloomberg Brazilian banks will write fewer mortgages this year as delinquency rates climb amid the country’s worst recession in more than a century, according to Moody’s Investors Service. State-owned lender Caixa Economica Federal, which issues almost three-fourths of housing loans in Brazil, also faces higher financing costs, imperiling its ability to write new mortgages, Moody’s said in a report. …