Headlines

Industrial output across the 19 countries that make up the eurozone fell in June, official figures showed Monday, in a development that likely illustrates the export-sapping impact of the rising euro. The Eurostat statistics agency said output declined by 0.6 percent during the month, giving up half the previous month's gain, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story.

At what point does a country’s political situation become intolerable for bond investors? That is the question facing holders of Venezuela’s debt as the nation’s descent into strife raises questions about investment ethics, the Financial Times reported. This week, Credit Suisse circulated a memo outlining a ban on trading in two Venezuelan bonds, reflecting growing unease about the reputational risks of being associated with a country under the increasingly autocratic government of Nicolás Maduro.

Tata Steel Ltd. and the trustee of the British Steel Pension Scheme have agreed to terms to separate the plan from the Indian steelmaker’s U.K. unit, eliminating the last hurdle for it to proceed with a strategy to place European operations into a joint venture, Bloomberg News reported. The Mumbai-based company has signed the regulated apportionment arrangement with the pension trustee and the terms are expected to take effect in a month’s time, the trustee said in a statement Friday.

Container shipping groups will continue to do deals, leaving only five or six survivors in an industry that two years ago had 20 players, according to the chief executive of AP Moller-Maersk, the sector’s dominant company. Soren Skou told the Financial Times that the consolidation trend in the past 24 months that has seen eight of the top 20 container shipping groups be acquired or go bankrupt would continue, the Financial Times reported. “My prediction would be that the industry would consolidate further. A decade from now, we would be more in the five to six range,” he said.

Once seen as an opportunity for investors to position themselves for a future North Korean turnaround, the country's rarely traded defaulted debt may move further into the twilight zone after new sanctions were imposed this week on Pyongyang, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Debt from North Korea - probably the most isolated of the frontier markets - has already been frozen for years as the secretive nation faces the most stringent sanctions regime in the world.

Brazilian President Michel Temer has burned through political capital fighting corruption charges and is struggling to push forward his economic agenda meant to rein in a gaping budget deficit, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Even allies in Congress now doubt he can achieve anything but watered-down measures, likely delaying any fix to Brazil's fiscal crisis until the economy recovers from deep recession. With continued deficits, Brazil risks further downgrades in its credit rating.

Suzlon Energy Ltd. reported its lowest quarterly profit in a year as India’s support for auction mechanism to build wind energy projects slowed orders, Bloomberg News reported. The profit of 490.8 million rupees ($7.65 million) during the usually quiet fiscal first quarter compared with a loss of 2.6 billion rupees in the year-ago period, according to a filing to the Indian stock exchange late Friday. The previous three quarters each provided profit over 2 billion rupees.

Irish banks are set to face mounting pressure from regulators to write off bad loans, a person familiar with the matter said. European authorities that now oversee the biggest Irish lenders have consistently pushed bankers to deal with the legacy of non-performing assets left over from the nation’s financial crash through measures such as loan sales, Bloomberg News reported.

Most experts debating bail-in and bail-out strategies agree that banks should build capital and shrink balance sheets as the best way to avoid a collapse and rebuild after one. But researchers are suggesting a more personalized version of that recipe that makes the difference between life and death for struggling firms, a Bloomberg View reported.

Noble Group Ltd.’s net debt surged by almost $1 billion over the first six months as trading losses and constrained access to funds heaped further pressure on the commodity trader as it battles for survival, Bloomberg News reported. Net debt expanded $945 million from the start of the year to $3.82 billion at the end of June, the Hong Kong-based company said in a statement on Thursday as it reported a $1.75 billion loss for the second quarter.