| | |  Business News | September 2008 
Latin American Stocks Plunge
 Associated Press
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| | Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim speaks during a news conference in Mexico City, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008. Slim says today's crisis is "more complex" than any other since 1929, when stock markets plummeted, triggering the Great Depression. (AP/Gregory Bull) | | |
Sao Paulo, Brazil — Latin American stocks plunged and shares of key Brazilian companies suffered their steepest losses in nearly a decade on Monday after U.S. lawmakers rejected a $700 billion bailout package meant to reboot the global economy.
Trading was automatically halted for 30 minutes after Sao Paulo's Ibovespa crossed the 10 percent loss threshold. ... It was the index's worst one-day slump since falling 10 percent on Jan. 14, 1999, the last time trading was halted.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva lashed out against excesses by U.S. and European bankers that he said could scuttle economic advances made by developing nations in recent years.
"We can't be turned into victims of the casino erected by the American economy," Silva said. "It's not fair for Latin American, African and Asian countries to pay for the irresponsibility of sectors of the American financial system."
In Argentina, Buenos Aires' Merval index dropped 8.7 percent at close, while Mexico's main index slipped 6.4 percent. Chile's Ipsa index closed down 5.5 percent, and Colombia's dipped 2.4 percent.
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim described the current financial crisis as "the worst I have known in all of my life, and the most complex since 1929," when stock markets plunged, triggering the Great Depression.
"It's obviously bigger, because we are talking about an economy that is a lot bigger," said Slim.
"Brazil is taking the biggest hit because it has the largest amount of foreign investors and the biggest and most liquid market," said Enrique Alvarez, head of research for Latin American financial markets at IDEAglobal in New York.
But he also warned that Mexico and Colombia could be seriously affected, given their close political, economic and trade ties to the U.S.
"We're going to continue seeing high volatility," added Juan Ignacio Di Santo, an analyst at the Buenos Aires-based brokerage Puente Hermanos. "The contagion is across the board."
Mexico's Slim Says Crisis 'More Complex' than 1929
Associated Press
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Mexico City - Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is calling the current financial crisis the worst he has ever seen.
Slim says today's crisis is "more complex" than any other since 1929, when stock markets plummeted, triggering the Great Depression.
Slim spoke Monday minutes after U.S. lawmakers rejected a financial bailout that U.S. Treasury officials had hoped would calm jittery investors.
Instead, markets plunged in the U.S., and Latin American indices saw some of their biggest losses in years.
Slim suggested that bank shareholders and executives should shoulder some responsibility for failing financial institutions, predicting that they "will obviously lose their capital in a substantial manner." |
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