Markets

BRASILIA: Brazil's central bank slashed interest rates to a record low on Wednesday (Jul 31) in response to the worsening outlook for Latin America's biggest economy. The bank cut its main rate to six percent from the previous historic low of 6.5 per cent, which had been unchanged since March...

GREAT Eastern Holdings' second-quarter net profit fell 29 per cent to S$169 million from S$237.6 million for the same year-ago period on the back of non-operating losses.

An attorney for the state attorneys general who filed a lawsuit in hopes of stopping T-Mobile U.S. Inc's US$26 billion merger with Sprint Corp has requested a new trial date for the case.

Meat alternatives company Beyond Meat Inc said on Wednesday a secondary offering of 3.25 million new shares would be priced at US$160 per share, an 18.6per cent discount to the stock's closing price.

Brazilian miner Vale SA on Wednesday said it swung to a quarterly loss as the company announced more than US$2 billion in fresh writedowns related to two deadly dam bursts suffered by the company over a period of less than four years.

Asian shares were set to open significantly lower on Thursday as the U.S. Federal Reserve poured cold water on market expectations of a lengthy easing cycle after delivering a 25-basis-point cut.

Cisco Systems Inc has agreed to settle a whistleblower’s claim that it improperly sold video surveillance software with known vulnerabilities to U.S. federal and state governments, marking the first payout on a False Claims Act case brought over failure to meet cybersecurity standards.

KARAWANG, West Java: The high tide was coming but fishermen in the remote village of Sedari, in the northern coast of Indonesia’s West Java province, had no plans of venturing out to sea. “The fishes are either dead or have fled elsewhere,” Mr Rohadi, who like many Indonesians goes with one name...

The trend towards lower real interest rates has lasted for decades and is as likely to continue as to reverse, says the Financial Times' Robin Harding.

SANTIAGO: Hit by five years of "economic slowdown," Latin America's economy will grow by barely 0.5 per cent this year, the United Nations economic commission for the region said on Wednesday (Jul 31), well below the 1.3 per cent projected in April. The region is mired in "uncertainty and...