Last week, Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL (ELP), posted positive results for the second quarter with a 5.9% increase in revenues (in Brazilian reals). The company has a strong balance sheet with net debt of just R$136 million (US$28 million) at the end of the quarter.   Net income was down 18.9% year over year (in Brazilian reals). The result reflects the slower growth in the market in comparison to the year-ago period due to the impact of the economic crisis on industrial customers.   Residential consumption increased 5.1%, industrial consumption was down 4.8% in the captive market, commercial segment consumption rose 7.3% and rural consumption was up 7.8%. But, power consumption by free customers fell 16.9% year over year due to decrease in power demand from free customers.   Commercial, residential and rural data indicate a good economic environment in the State of Paraná. Moreover, the ...

We have been saying since the end of 2008 that emerging markets in general -- and Latin American in particular -- would outperform more developed markets such as the U.S., Europe and Japan. Indeed it has been our mantra in the past few months. Now this view has become the consensus and Brazil seems to be one of the more interesting places for equity investments.

The so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have been outperforming the market. Through June 10, 2009, according to The Economist, Brazil is up 70.5%, Russia is up 77.5%, China is up 65.9% and India is up 65.3% (all in U.S. dollar terms). In the same period, the Emerging Markets MSCI was up 39.2%, World MSCI was up just 10.3% and the S&P 500 just 4%.

It seems that the decoupling theory that was so criticized recently is back and stronger than ever! After such great

...

We have been saying since the end of 2008 that emerging markets in general -- and Latin American in particular -- would outperform more developed markets such as the U.S., Europe and Japan. Indeed it has been our mantra in the past few months. Now this view has become the consensus and Brazil seems to be one of the more interesting places for equity investments.

The so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have been outperforming the market. Through June 10, 2009, according to The Economist, Brazil is up 70.5%, Russia is up 77.5%, China is up 65.9% and India is up 65.3% (all in U.S. dollar terms). In the same period, the Emerging Markets MSCI was up 39.2%, World MSCI was up just 10.3% and the S&P 500 just 4%.

It seems that the decoupling theory that was so criticized recently is back and stronger than ever! After such great

...

We have been saying since the end of 2008 that emerging markets in general -- and Latin American in particular -- would outperform more developed markets such as the U.S., Europe and Japan. Indeed it has been our mantra in the past few months. Now this view has become the consensus, and Brazil seems to be one of the more interesting places for equity investments.The so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have been outperforming the market. Through June 10, 2009, according to The Economist, Brazil is up 70.5%, Russia is up 77.5%, China is up 65.9% and India is up 65.3% (all in U.S. dollar terms). In the same period, the Emerging Markets MSCI was up 39.2%, World MSCI was up just 10.3% and the S&P 500 just 4%.It seems that the decoupling theory that was so criticized recently is back and stronger ...

We have been saying since the end of 2008 that emerging markets in general -- and Latin American in particular -- would outperform more developed markets such as the U.S., Europe and Japan. Indeed it has been our mantra in the past few months. Now this view has become the consensus, and Brazil seems to be one of the more interesting places for equity investments.The so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) have been outperforming the market. Through June 10, 2009, according to The Economist, Brazil is up 70.5%, Russia is up 77.5%, China is up 65.9% and India is up 65.3% (all in U.S. dollar terms). In the same period, the Emerging Markets MSCI was up 39.2%, World MSCI was up just 10.3% and the S&P 500 just 4%.It seems that the decoupling theory that was so criticized recently is back and stronger ...

Some months ago during the difficult moments of the financial crisis, Morgan Stanley (MS) issued a report forecasting a GDP contraction of 4.5% for Brazil in 2009. We always had a more benign view on emerging markets in general and Brazil in particular.We had been stressing that: (i) the Brazilian banking system remains sound, (ii) domestic interest rates have huge room for cuts and (iii) Brazil is still a "closed" country which does not rely overly much on exports and imports. All this together points to a more positive economic environment in Brazil in 2009, if compared to more developed economies like those in Europe, the U.S. and Japan.The more positive view on Brazil (and other emerging markets, particularly China and India) is now considered basic common sense. Yesterday Morgan Stanley announced that it revised its expectation for the Brazilian GDP from -4.5% to ...

Last night, the Brazilian Central Bank announced an amazing decision when it decided to cut domestic rates by 100 basis points to 9.25% per year.Until just several days ago the market was expecting a cut of 75 basis points. However, after the release of the better-than-expected GDP numbers a few days ago the market changed its expectation to just 50 basis points.Considering the orthodox bias of the Brazilian Central Bank, we were expecting a 50 basis points cut, too. The decision was not unanimous -- among the eight directors with powers to vote in the meeting, six directors voted for 100 basis points cut and two voted for 75 basis points.Despite the bold decision, the statement after the meeting said that any additional cuts in the near future will be implemented in a more "parsimonious way," thus new cuts should be much less ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 10, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Vivo (VIV), Grupo Ultra (UGP), Cemig (CIG), Copel (ELP) and Petrobras (PBR).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Brazil GDP Better than Expected

Brazilian GDP for the first quarter 2009 was down -0.8% from the previous quarter and -1.8% from the same quarter 2008. The average expectation of the market was -2.1% from the previous quarter and -3.2% from the first quarter 2008.

We believe these numbers

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This morning, better-than-expected numbers for the Brazilian GDP were released. As we have been saying for weeks, Brazil has been less affected by the global economic crisis and should recover earlier than elsewhere as domestic conditions are improving, mainly due to a more relaxed monetary policy.Brazilian GDP for the first quarter 2009 was down -0.8% from the previous quarter and -1.8% from the same quarter 2008. The average expectation of the market was -2.1% from the previous quarter and -3.2% from the first quarter 2008.We believe these numbers will reinforce the view that emerging markets in general, and Brazil in particular, will outperform more developed economies. According to the weekly focus survey conducted by the Brazilian Central Bank among local banks, brokers and consulting companies, 2009 Brazilian GDP was expected to fall -0.71% before the numbers today.We believe next week there will be ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 3, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Vivo (VIV), AmBev (ABV), Cemig (CIG), Copel (ELP) and Sabesp (SBS).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Brazilian Real Passes US$2.00

We do not believe heterodox measures will be strong enough to change the trend in the Brazilian real. Even worse, such measures would raise concerns on the willingness of the Brazilian Central Bank to keep on reducing aggressively domestic interest rates.

We continue to believe that

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