Headlines

Brazilian stocks fell, the real led global currency declines and local bond yields rose to records as dim prospects for Latin America’s largest economy weighed on investor sentiment, Bloomberg News reported. The real dropped to a 12-year after President Dilma Rousseff suffered a setback in Congress that eroded measures to pare budgets and avoid a junk credit rating. The benchmark Ibovespa equity index fell after the central bank’s signal that borrowing costs will stay at a nine-year high undermined retailers.

Brazilian companies this year have filed the largest number of bankruptcy protection requests on record, credit research firm Serasa Experian said on Wednesday, the latest symptom of the nation's most severe economic downturn in 25 years, Reuters reported. According to Serasa Experian's indicator of bankruptcies and judicial recovery requests, a total 627 requests were filed across Brazil in the first seven months of the year. That is the largest such number since the enactment of a law on bankruptcy proceedings in 2005.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday that Greece was close to concluding a deal with lenders on a multi-billion-euro bailout, which he said would end doubts over its place in the euro zone, Reuters reported. The comments were the latest in a series of unusually upbeat assessments by Greek and European officials of progress in talks towards up to 86 billion euros ($93.6 billion) in fresh loans to stave off the country's financial ruin and economic collapse. "We are in the final stretch," Tsipras said.

The United States on Wednesday raised pressure on Ukraine's creditors to strike a deal to restructure the government's debts, with a top U.S. official saying Ukraine's debt burden is "unsustainable". "We urge these creditors to move swiftly in the coming weeks to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian authorities," Nathan Sheets, the Treasury's top official for international affairs, said in an op ed commentary published on broadcaster CNBC's website. Read more.

Spain emerged as the best performer of the eurozone’s big four economies last month as the single currency area largely shrugged off the impact of the Greek debt crisis, The Guardian reported. The latest health check conducted by the information services company Markit showed the pace of activity across the eurozone eased only slightly during the weeks when Greek banks were closed for business. But the survey found no signs that the eurozone was about to slide back into recession and, with Spain leading the way, was consistent with growth continuing at about 0.4% per quarter.

Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium has a "reasonable prospect" of recovering despite closing operations and possibly cutting jobs, the South African steelmaker's business rescue team said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The company, which last week pulled the plug on its South African iron operations, citing a lack of working capital and saying at the time it planned to stop its steel plant, has been in business rescue proceedings for three months to protect it from creditors.

The jobs recovery stalled in July, as the the rate of unemployment remained unchanged at 9.7 per cent, while youth unemployment rose slightly during the month, up to 20.2 per cent, the Irish Times reported. According to figures from the Central Statistics Office released on Wednesday, the unemployment rate was unchanged in July, with some 208,900 people without a job, up by 300 on June, but down by 32,400 on July 2014. At 9.7 per cent, this is the lowest rate since January 2009 but is the third consecutive month of no change in the unemployment rate.

Chinese stocks rebounded sharply on Tuesday after the government took further steps to rein in short-sellers, the International New York Times reported. The main Shanghai share index closed 3.7 percent higher, reversing three days of losses, after the country’s two main stock exchanges said they would make it more difficult for investors to bet on falling share prices.

State-owned train operator Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann) is likely to face bankruptcy if it loses the right to run services as a result of proposed changes to the way the EU rail sector is run, the Government has warned, the Irish Times reported. Iarnród Éireann’s contract for operating train services is due to expire in 2019 and the EU Commission has been pressing for changes which would see the sector opened up to tenders from competitors.

After the Greek government imposed capital controls to prevent the country’s banks from collapsing, businessman Athanassios Savvakis feared exports of apricots, peaches and tomatoes would be the country’s next economic casualty, the Financial Times reported. “I was seriously worried,” said the chief executive of National Can Hellas, a private company that makes 300m cans a year for local fruit and vegetable processors.