Cheap labor and a good climate for crops have positioned Brazil to make gains in agriculture. This week we sent global strategist Jack Dzierwa (pictured here) south for a look at opportunities.
Another “I” in the BRIC Wall?
May 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The acronym BRIC — which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, and China — was coined in a 2001 Goldman Sachs paper about quickly growing economies that could overtake the world’s wealthiest nations by 2050.
Almost a decade after the original report, the group has performed true to forecasts by outpacing the growth of industrialized nations by a wide margin.
[Read more...]Brazil’s Infrastructure Plays Catch Up
May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Brazil has become one of the globe’s beacons of growth but in terms of infrastructure investment it needs to catch up to its peers.
As you can see from the two charts below, Brazil’s investment in its infrastructure has lagged that of emerging market leaders India and China, but it’s also lagged other Latin American countries like Peru and Mexico. In terms of investment-to-GDP ratio, Brazil averaged 17 percent over the past five years, according to a Morgan Stanley report, far behind China (44 percent), India (38 percent) and Russia (24 percent).
[Read more...]PotashCorp (NYSE:POT) — Reports Fivefold Volume Increase Over Last Year
May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
PotashCorp (NYSE:POT), the Canadian integrated fertilizer and feed products company with operations in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, recently reported its new numbers and they are promising. The update shows exactly what Chris Mayer, editor of Agora Financial’s Capital & Crisis newsletter, had been expecting. Farmers are coming back into the market and buying potash once again.
[Read more...]BP plc (NYSE:BP) – Locks up Access to New Set of Oil Assets
March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
London-based BP (NYSE:BP), the giant international oil and gas company, is considered one of the most undervalued of the “Big Oil” set by Agora Financial commodities expert Byron W. King. In his opinion, it was not well managed for many years in the 2000s, and even so far back as into the 1990s. However, he’s seen a lot of intriguing news of late which he discusses in a recent update.
[Read more...]Brazil Launches Salvo of Trade Sanctions Against US
March 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
According to the head of economic affairs at Brazil’s foreign ministry, Carlos Marcio Cozendey, the plan is “to distribute the retaliation broadly in order to maximise pressure.”
The “retaliation” he refers to includes trade sections on 100 US goods, ranging from cars to milk powder. The tariffs are in response to cotton producer subsidies the US has kept in place despite a 2008 WTO ruling that found the practice discriminatory.
[Read more...]
Seeing the Good and Bad in Latin America
Global Strategist Jack Dzierwa is just back from an extensive research trip across Latin America. In addition to checking on agricultural prospects in Brazil (detailed here: Brazil Feeds the World), Jack traveled to Chile and Argentina. There he found two very different stories – one good, the other not.
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