CNN Money
– Brazil falls deep into recession. Its currency is plummeting, unemployment is rising, its stock market is down 20% from a year ago and its president, Dilma Rousseff, has an 8% approval rating — the lowest since 1992 when Brazil’s president was impeached.
Its economy contracted 1.9% in the second quarter compared to the first. It was the second consecutive quarter of contraction. Compared with the same quarter last year, its economy shrank 2.6%, by far the worst performance in years, according to government statistics published Friday.
– India’s growth slows as reforms stall. In the middle of a gloomy global landscape, economists were looking to India to provide a rare bright spot after it overtook China to become the world’s fastest growing large economy earlier this year.
But those hopes were dashed Monday when official data showed GDP grew at an annual rate of 7% in the three months to June 30. That was down from 7.5% in the first quarter of the year, and weaker than analysts were expecting.
The BRICS group as a whole — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — and many other emerging markets are all suffering from weaker growth.
– Natural gas discovery could be largest ever. In what could be the largest natural gas discovery in history, Italian energy company Eni says it has unearthed a «supergiant» gas field in the Mediterranean Sea covering about 40 square miles.
The gas field could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Eni says that’s the energy equivalent of about 5.5 billion barrels of oil. The company won’t know the field’s true size until it begins to develop it.
After Eni explores and begins to develop the field, the company estimates that it will be able to satisfy Egypt’s natural gas demand for «decades.»
Bloomberg News
– China stocks. Chinese stocks fell, with the Shanghai Composite Index closing down 0.82 percent, to finish the month of August 12 percent lower. The benchmark gauge has had it biggest two-month drop since 2008 on rising concerns that government intervention will fail to stop the reversal.
– Global market slump.More than $5 trillion has been wiped off the value of global shares in August as the surprise yuan devaluation and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s intentions at its September meeting weighed on stocks. The MSCI All-Country World Index is heading for a 6.5 percent drop in August, the gauge’s biggest one-month decline since May 2012.
– Euro-area inflation. Inflation in the euro area remained unchanged at 0.2 percent in August according to the flash estimate from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a reading of 0.1 percent. The European Central Bank is set to gather on Thursday for its next monetary policy meeting, with expectations for no change in its stance despite comments last week from executive board member Peter Praet suggesting the bank may have to do more to return inflation to target.
– «Super giant» gas field. ENI SpA announced the discovery of a «super giant» natural gas field in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Egypt. The field may hold 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, equivalent to 5.5 billion barrels of oil and is expected to take four years to develop. Shares in ENI advanced 2.8 percent in Milan following the announcement of the discovery. Shares in Israeli explorers involved in that country’s Leviathan off-shore field were hit hard following the announcement with the TA-Oil & Gas index dropping 8.8 percent.