Headlines

Investor Nelson Tanure said he’ll vote in favor of the bankruptcy process for Rio de Janeiro’s power company Light SA at a Wednesday shareholders’ meeting, making the approval of the measure practically certain, Bloomberg News reported. “We are looking for a completely uniform direction for the company,” Tanure said in an interview. Tanure, a veteran investor in distressed assets in Brazil, holds a 21.8% stake in Light through the fund WNT Gestora de Recursos Ltda, after starting to buy shares when they went declined this year.

Supply chain pressures cooled again in May, New York Fed data showed, in a development that further eased what had been one of the key factors that had helped drive surging inflation pressures around the work, Reuters reported. The New York Fed said on Tuesday that its latest Global Supply Chain Pressure Index stood at -1.71, from the revised -1.35 for April. The report said supply chain pressures were below average in all regions of the world considered in the index. The bank tied reduced pressure in May to diminished contributions from Great Britain backlogs and Taiwan delivery times.

Consumer prices in Brazil decelerated more than expected in May, government data showed on Wednesday, with 12-month inflation hitting its lowest level in more than two years and dropping below the 4% mark for the first time since late 2020, Reuters reported. The figures are likely to add weight to calls by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government and business people for the central bank to lower its key interest rate from the current six-year high of 13.75%.

Brazil's central bank abstained from involvement in developing the government's comprehensive consumer debt renegotiation program unveiled on Monday, two central bank directors said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Speaking at a news conference, Renato Gomes, the director of the financial system organization, said that policymakers solely furnished information without actively contributing to the program's design.

China's exports shrank much faster than expected in May while imports extended declines with a grim outlook for global demand, especially from developed markets, raising doubts about the fragile economic recovery, Reuters reported. The world's second-largest economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter thanks to robust services consumption and a backlog of orders following years of COVID disruptions, but factory output has slowed as rising interest rates and inflation squeeze demand in the United States and Europe.

U.K. house builders cut back on developments at a pace last seen during the pandemic and the global financial crisis 14 years ago after a jump in mortgage rates, a closely watched survey found. S&P Global said its PMI index for the sector dropped to 42.7, the lowest since May 2020 when homebuilding was brought to a standstill by the first Covid-19 lockdown. Excluding the pandemic, it was the weakest since 2009. It bucked a wider pickup in the construction industry in May. The overall PMI rose to 51.6 from 51.1 in April, boosted by commercial building and civil engineering work.

HESTA, one of Australia's largest pension funds, on Wednesday froze work with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia, the latest fund to blacklist the firm amid a national scandal over its misuse of confidential government tax plans, Reuters reported. The A$72 billion ($48 billion) fund is "very concerned" and will "restrict consideration of PwC for any new or additional service provision", according to a statement on Wednesday. The fund is audited by PwC.

Brazil’s securities regulator filed the first charges involving the accounting scandal and bankruptcy at retail giant Americanas SA, Bloomberg News reported. The CVM, as the regulator is known, accused the company’s ex-chief executive officer Sergio Rial over “inconsistencies” in the disclosure of a 20 billion reais ($4 billion) accounting hole to the market.

Japan’s parliament on Tuesday enacted a set of bills to digitalize civil procedures that do not involve lawsuits, such as divorce mediation and bankruptcy applications, the Japan Times reported. The House of Representatives passed the bills by a majority vote at the day’s plenary meeting, with support mainly from the ruling bloc. The bills were approved by the the Upper House earlier. The legislation will allow people to submit necessary applications online, instead of the current system of such documents being brought or mailed to courts.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday admitted applications filed by Go First lessors Jackson Square Aviation Private Ltd and Engine Lease Finance BV and directed the insolvency resolution professional (IRP) to reply within a week, the Economic Times of India reported. Jackson Square had filed an interlocutory application asking the court to restrain Go First from flying the eight aircraft leased by the company to the airline.