Venezuela’s dollar bonds are testing all time lows as President Nicolas Maduro plots how to respond to new U.S. sanctions and revive an economy in shambles. The country’s $4 billion of benchmark notes due in 2027 declined 4.6 percent in August to 39.65 cents on the dollar, just 7 cents away from the record low of 32.45 cents on the dollar seen in February 2016, Bloomberg News reported. State oil company PDVSA’s $3 billion of notes due in 2035 declined 5.8 percent in August to 35.3 cents on the dollar, only 6.2 cents above the record low.

U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela last week put limits on new debt from the country. But the Treasury Department’s move is having broader consequences in the bond market, where brokers taking a cautious stance are limiting trades in existing notes. Depository Trust Company, a custodian for more than $35 trillion of securities, temporarily put a block on services for Venezuelan bond trades, and some dealers have also stopped buying and selling the debt.

The world’s riskiest credit continued its downward spiral after Fitch Ratings lowered Venezuela’s grade deeper into junk, saying additional U.S. sanctions increase the probability of non-payment. Fitch reduced the nation’s long-term foreign and local currency ratings to CC, just two notches from default, from CCC on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service also rank the country at speculative levels.

A stalled solar-thermal project in northern Chile backed by a U.S. private equity investor is seeking about $800 million in debt to resume construction, according to people familiar with the deal, Bloomberg News reported. EIG Global Energy Partners, the U.S. private equity investor that took over the $1 billion Cerro Dominador solar plant last year, has received interest from “several international banks,” Fernando Gonzalez, the project’s chief executive officer, said in an email Monday. He started pursuing project-finance debt about three weeks ago, and declined to say how much he’s seeking.

Michel Temer is the most unpopular president in the democratic history of Brazil. He presides over an economy only just coming out of its worst-ever recession. He also faces corruption allegations and could be impeached. Yet markets are unfazed, the Financial Times reported. Since he came to office one year ago Mr Temer has followed through on pledges to stabilise the economy, and the stock market has risen by a half. An ambitious $14bn privatisation programme, including the sale of Electrobras, the utility, has now raised investor spirits further.

Venezuela's close ally China said on Monday that history shows external interference and unilateral sanctions only make things more complex and will not help resolve problems, after the United States imposed new sanctions on Venezuela, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prohibits dealings in new debt from the Venezuelan government or its state oil company on Friday in an effort to halt financing that the White House said fuels President Nicolas Maduro's "dictatorship".

President Nicolas Maduro summoned holders of Venezuelan bonds to a meeting with Economy Minister Ramon Lobo next week to discuss the effects of U.S. sanctions aimed at sovereign and state oil company debt, Bloomberg News reported. U.S.-based holders of Venezuela bonds will be hurt the most by the sanctions, Maduro said. President Donald Trump “burned the bonds in their hands” by trying to harm Venezuela, he said, without providing more details on the meeting. “Attention, holders of Venezuela bonds,” Maduro said on state television.

Brazil's Raízen Energia SA is interested in bidding for an ethanol mill owned by the Brazilian subsidiary of India's sugar producer Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd, which will be auctioned in early September, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Raízen, which is a Brazilian joint venture between Cosan SA Industria e Comércio and Royal Dutch Shell, made a late request to join the auction and would have to receive a special authorization from creditors to bid, the sources said, asking to remain anonymous as they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The threat of US sanctions against Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela escalated this week, with vice-president Mike Pence warning of “more to come”. But investors appeared unmoved, the Financial Times reported. While bond prices initially dipped on Wednesday on reports that new sanctions could ban trading in new issues from the Venezuelan government and state oil group Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), several of the bonds rebounded on Thursday.

The Brazilian unit of struggling Spanish energy and infrastructure group Abengoa SA obtained approval from creditors on Friday for its in-court debt restructuring plan, said a lawyer representing one of the creditors, Reuters reported. Abengoa has around 3.4 billion reais ($1.08 billion) in debt with suppliers and banks in Brazil and has filed for court protection against creditors last year, after stopping several projects for lack of funding.