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Brazil saw retail sales volumes drop 0.4 percent from a month earlier indication a slowdown as South America’s largest economy continues to struggle with rising inflation, the Brazilian Institute of geography and Statistics announced late on Tuesday.

Sales in August were up 6.2 percent year-on-year but nonetheless produced the second most sluggish growth rate since September 2009. It was the first recorded volume decline since a 0.2 percent drop in April.

Only two of Brazil’s ten activities that make up the retail trade reported positive growth. Vehicles, fabric and apparel, construction material, cosmetics and furniture appliances reported the largest decrease.

Meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street campaign has grown into a global movement and continues to attract tens of thousands of protestors marching against the current political and economic system. What started with a group of around 1,000 people walking through the streets of New York has turned into an international appeal for an end to taxpayer bailouts and for political leaders to accept accountability and responsibility for their action.

The royal family of Qatar is moving up its investment in Europe’s banking sector with plans to acquire private banking arms of Dexia and its Belgian competitor KBC.

Private lender KBC said it was to sell its Luxembourg division to Qatari investment group Precision Capital for €1.05bn. The sale will allow the bank to reduce its risk profile, raise capital and permit it to focus on its central and eastern European markets.

Luxembourg’s finance minister Luc Frieden said late on Monday that the Qatari investment group, which is now to take over Dexia’s Banque Internationale Luxembourg, belongs to the al-Thani royal family.

The al Thani’s, who are known also for their sovereign wealth fund the Qatar Investment Authority, have previously invested in European banks at the end of 2008 when they helped raise emergency funds for Barclays bank.

Sinopec Group, a unit of China’s state-backed energy company China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, late on Sunday signed a deal to acquire Canada’s oil and gas explorer Daylight Energy for C$2.2bn.

In its largest acquisition this year Sinopec offered a 43.6 percent premium to Daylight Energy’s 60-day weighted average trading price, or C$10.08 a share, in cash.

The deal is considered to be the largest takeover by a Chinese energy company in North America after rival Cnook bought Opti Canada for $2.1bn earlier this year.

Sinopec is China’s largest producer and supplier in oil products and major petrochemical products and will join competitors Cnook and China National Petroleum in their attempt to expand global shale gas exploration through international partnership.

Sony Corporation has reportedly secured financing from Abu Dhabi’s investment fund, Mubadala, to help compete for British music label EMI Group.

The Middle Eastern investment funds’ backing, and additional financial support from media investment bank Raine, will assist Sony to better compete with the other bidders which are said to include Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.

Second-round bids at auction came in at between $3.5bn and $4bn, according to sources close to the process. The present owner of the label is Citigroup which had been forced to take over EMI Group after the previous owners were unable to pay their debt.

Private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and BMG jointly are currently seen as the front runners for EMI Music Publishing while Warner Music is said to be leading the race for EMI’s recorded music assets.

A quick recapitalisation of European banks is necessary to steady markets and avert the economy from falling into another recession, IMF Europe Director, Antonio Borges, said late on Wednesday. The price tag for such a move was estimated in the range between €100bn and €200bn, he said.

According to the IMF report, the eurozone debt crisis and its effects are disseminating across core banks and nations and make it impossible to rule out a further economic recession.

The report cautioned that stronger economies should steer clear of compelling radical budget cuts at the expense of growth.

The IMF moreover offered its help through the possible implementation of a financing tool that allows it to buy bonds, particularly Spanish and Italian ones, in private markets to assist in curbing the bloc’s debt crisis.

“Any investment we would make in Spain or Italy would be based on full confidence that these countries are on the right track, that they are solvent and that they are taking all the measures they should, Borges told a news conference.

Stock markets in Europe bounced higher early on Wednesday as traders decided to pick up stocks trading down at discount levels following three days of losses and Italy’s credit downgrade late on Tuesday.

Moody’s cut Italy’s credit rating from Aa2 to A2 with a negative outlook, blaming “material increase in long-term funding risks for the euro area,” the ratings agency said in a statement.

The FTSE 100 index was up 2.2 percent to 5,053.38, Germany’s DAX 30 added 2.1 percent to 5,324.60, and France’s CAC40 rose 2.5 percent to 2,921.

Lenders also gained with Deutsche Bank up 5.5 percent and BNP Paribas in Paris rising 6.99 percent to €29.08.

Shares in Europe slumped on Monday after the Greek governments’ Finance Ministry announced its draft budget figures showing the country’s deficit is likely to reach 8.5 percent of GDP for 2011.

Greece will miss the terms of the bailout, originally agreed with Troika, which obliged it to meet a 7.6 percent target for 2011. The country is also unlikely to meet the 6.5 percent objective set for 2012, the ministry said late on Sunday.

The Frankfurt DAX dropped 3.2 percent, Stoxx Europe 600 and the FTSE 100 both decreased by two percent to 221.76 and 5024.43 respectively.

Banks slumped on the news, with BNP Paribas down almost seven percent, Commerzbank down 5.9 percent, and Societe Generale decreasing by six percent.

Minmetal Resources, a unit of Chinas largest metal trader, China Minmetals Group, on Friday launched a C$1.3bn ($1.29bn) friendly takeover bid for Congo-focused copper producer Anvil Mining.

The move by Hong Kong-listed Minmetal Resources is the second attempt to acquire a copper producer with operations in Africa as it unsuccessfully bid C$6.3bn for Equinox Minerals in March.

Anvil shareholders, who include Trafigura Beheer and collectively hold a stake of 40.1 percent, supported the C$8 a-share offer, Minmetals said in a statement.  

The price offer made to Anvil represents a 30 percent premium to the 20-day volume weighted average price and a 39 percent premium of its closing share price on Thursday, the statement said.

European stocks decreased in early trading Wednesday as markets await Troika’s evaluation on Greece’s progress in reducing its debt levels. The ECB, EU and IMF, collectively known as Troika, hold the key to discharging the next tranche of the bailout money, a sum of €8bn from a total of €109bn, to Greece.

Optimism about a solution weakened however following a report that European leaders were undecided about whether to reorganise Greece’s bailout.

The FTSE 100 index, which on Tuesday gained significantly, fell 0.81 percent to 5,250.92, the German Dax decreased by 1.19 percent to 5,561.26, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.28 percent to 2,984.77.

Stocks across the board rose in early trading Tuesday as markets remained hopeful that discussions between German chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek prime minister George Papandreou will resolve Greece’s bailout and avert default.

In Europe the FTSE 100 index climbed 2.28 percent to 5,205.38, the Stoxx Europe increased by 2.31 percent to 225.37, the German Dax 30 rose 3.37 percent to 5,525.73, and the French CAC added 2.99 percent to reach 2,944.87.

Asian markets were up with the Nikkei 225 increasing 236 points, or 2.82 percent, to 8,610, the Hang Seng rising 723 points, or 4.15 percent, to 18,131 and the S&P ASX up 3.46 percent to 4,064.

European stocks remain fairly steady while Asian markets traded higher on Wednesday ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting.
 
Europe recuperated the ground it lost on Tuesday following an Italian credit rating downgrade after news emerged that Greece is “making good progress” in reaching a deal regarding the next tranche of €8bn as part of the bailout with the EC, the IMF, and the ECB.

In Asia the Nikkei Stock Average increased 0.5 percent, the Kospi rose by one percent, and the Shanghai composite Index climbed 2.2 percent.

The euro decreased sharply on Tuesday against the dollar to $1.3599 following Italy’s debt rating cut by Standard & Poor’s late on Monday.

S&P cut Italy’s credit rating by one notch to A from A+ with a negative outlook. The downgrade by the ratings agency comes amid worries that a “fragile governing coalition” and “weakening economic growth prospects” are pulling Europe’s third biggest economy further into the sovereign debt crisis.

Markets remain volatile as investors await the decision on whether Greece will be granted the sixth tranche, $11bn as part of a bailout, from international lenders.

Credit Suisse said on Monday it has agreed an out of court settlement of €150m with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Germany to end an investigation into its employees concerning tax evasion. The payment will be taken as a charge in the 3Q11.

Switzerland’s second largest bank said in a statement: “The entire proceedings are to be resolved,” and added “a complex and prolonged legal dispute has been avoided, with an agreed solution that provides legal certainty.”

The bank also said that it had been preparing for the changes in cross-border wealth management for a long time and pursues a strategy of only acquiring and managing assets in compliance with the applicable legislation and regulations.

Canadian BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, saw its share plummet almost 20 percent Friday after it announced it had missed its earnings target for the third consecutive quarter. Profits decreased sharply by 47 percent for 2Q11 to $497m from $797m year-on-year, while revenue dropped by ten percent to $4.17bn in the three months to August 27.

Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, spoke of a positive outlook for the next quarter. He said: “Overall unit shipments in the quarter were slightly below our forecast due to lower than expected demand for older models. We successfully launched a range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones around the world during the latter part of the second quarter and we are seeing strong sell-through and customer interest for these new products.”

India’s central bank increased interest rates on Friday for the 12th time since the beginning of March 2010 to tame inflation which stood at a 13-month high of 9.78 percent in August.

The Reserve Bank of India in response raised its repurchase rate, also referred to as the repo rate, by 0.25 percent to 8.25 percent. The bank said that slower growth will be the cost of controlling inflation.

“The global macroeconomic outlook has worsened. There is growing consensus that sluggishness will persist longer than earlier expected. Concerns over the sovereign debt problem in the euro area have added further uncertainty to the prospects of recovery,” the bank said in a statement.