SkyPostal Networks, Inc. (SKPN.OB), an international wholesale mail distribution company that specializes in hand delivery of commercial mail, periodicals and parcel post into the Latin America-Caribbean (LAC) region, recently announced that its Punto Mio division has entered into a co-marketing agreement with Banco Santander Rio, the Argentine branch of the Spanish bank Banco Santander. This is the world’s 12th-largest bank based on market capitalization with more than 10,850 branches in the Western world.

Under the co-marketing agreement, Punto Mio, an Internet shopping portal that bridges the gap between the online international shopper and U.S.-based Internet merchants from the time of purchase through cross-border delivery, Banco Santander Rio will promote the Punto Mio online shopping service to the bank’s 1 million banking clients in Argentina. Banco Santander Rio clients will also be offered a free Punto Mio U.S. address, providing users seamless cross-border parcel-post delivery through SkyPostal’s established

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SkyPostal Networks, Inc. (SKPN.OB), an international wholesale mail distribution company that specializes in hand delivery of commercial mail, periodicals and parcel post into the Latin America-Caribbean (LAC) region, recently announced that its Punto Mio division has entered into a co-marketing agreement with Banco Santander Rio, the Argentine branch of the Spanish bank Banco Santander. This is the world’s 12th-largest bank based on market capitalization with more than 10,850 branches in the Western world.

Under the co-marketing agreement, Punto Mio, an Internet shopping portal that bridges the gap between the online international shopper and U.S.-based Internet merchants from the time of purchase through cross-border delivery, Banco Santander Rio will promote the Punto Mio online shopping service to the bank’s 1 million banking clients in Argentina. Banco Santander Rio clients will also be offered a free Punto Mio U.S. address, providing users seamless cross-border parcel-post delivery through SkyPostal’s established

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The three ETFs have initial portfolios totaling about (U.S.) $41 million in assets.

 

Barclays PLC launched three exchange-traded funds in Brazil on Dec. 2, the first ETFs from the world's biggest ETF manager for the Brazilian market. 

The Brazilian iShares tracks three indexes: 1) the Bovespa Index, which holds the 66 most-traded stocks on the main Brazilian stock exchange; 2) the BM&F Bovespa Mid-Large Cap Index, which holds 69 stocks representing the top 85% of the market capitalization on the Sao Paolo exchange (adjusted for liquidity); and 3) the BM&F Small Cap index, which holds 71 companies representing the bottom 15% of the exchange's market cap.

Brazil is one of Latin America's biggest fund markets, and the Bovespa's profile as a major global exchange, the largest in South America, has been raised in recent years. Barclays Global Investors has plans to significantly expand its ETF staff in its Sao Paolo

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The Dow Chemical Company (DOW) is the largest producer of plastics and second-leading chemical company in the world. Vertical integration keeps cost low. Stronger demand in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, India, Middle East and Africa has more than offset the continued economic slowdown in North America. Moreover, price gains have largely offset significant increases in costs of feedstock and energy. The company's recently completed joint venture agreement with Petrochemical Industries Company of Kuwait is expected to reduce cyclicality in the chemical business. Further, its merger with Rohm and Haas will consolidate higher margin and higher growth specialty businesses and reduce the volatility in earnings and cash flow.However, high raw material costs have forced the company to temporarily idle or reduce production at several of its plants. Further, Dow has a high exposure to the commodity chemical cycle. We expect earnings to remain under ...

We expect stock prices to remain volatile and susceptible to headline risk. Moreover, depreciation of many foreign currencies relative to the US$ is depressing US$ stock prices. Combined with the grim economic outlook for many economies ranging from outright recession in developed economies to slowing growth in emerging market economies, we expect share price performance to continue to weaken.

As in the US, non-US bank stocks have been hammered this year due to the financial problems that began in the US subprime mortgage market and spread globally to engulf many major financial institutions in most countries. The median stock price decline for non-US bank in the Zacks' universe is 57.5% compared to a loss of 42.1% for the S&P 500. This includes median price declines for non-US banks in the Zacks' universe

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GM is essentially already bankrupt, says Horacio Marquez. And it has been for years. This clearly makes the company one to avoid for investors. But Horacio says there are still some ways for those with a big risk appetite to make big profits with the giant automaker.

This from Money Morning:

With America’s “Big Three” automakers all due to submit turnaround plans to Congress today (Tuesday) – a requirement if General Motor Corp. (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F), and Chrysler Corp., are to receive $25 billion in government loans – I couldn’t help but recall the moment eight years ago when I realized the U.S. auto industry was skidding toward a financial collapse.

I’ve been thinking about that market call of mine a lot of late, particularly after recently reading that JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) credit analysts had

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Stratos Renewables’ development and agricultural planning manager, Alfonso Altet, has more than a decade of experience in the research and development filed. He served as the manager of the Institute of Research and Development for Highlands of Universidad Nacional Agraria (Agricultural State University) in Mantaro Valley where he was responsible for researching and producing various highland crops. He also worked as Agricultural Development Manager of the National Program of Basin Management (PRONAMACH) in Cusco.

The company’s distillery advisor, Augusto De La Piedra, has four decades of experience in the sugar cane industry. He grew up on a 48,000 hectare plantation owned by his grandfather where they grew 15,000 hectares of sugar cane. De La Piedra is an industrial engineer, as well as a chemist, and is recognized as Peru’s leading expert on distilleries and refineries. He is part of the Board of Directors of

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SkyPostal Networks, Inc. (SKPN.OB) announced that it has signed a joint venture agreement with E-Commerce Ltd. (Kuwait) to expand the Punto Mio online shopping facilitator services to the Middle East. Punto Mio connects international online shoppers with U.S. ecommerce businesses and provides international transport, customs clearance and cross-border parcel delivery to Internet shoppers.

As terms of the agreement, E-Commerce Ltd., through its UShopWeShip.com service, offers U.S. ecommerce merchandise to its 120,000 registered online customers. Using its Punto Mio brand and infrastructure, SkyPostal will provide UShopWeShip.com web site management, processing of the parcels, and transport to the Dubai hub for delivery to most countries in the Middle East. Currently, E-Commerce Ltd delivers approximately 3,500 parcels per week into the region.

E-Commerce Chairman, Basel AlSawan stated, “We are pleased to enter into this partnership with SkyPostal to assist us in seamlessly managing online shopping orders from U.S. merchants to our

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While China made headlines with a historic interest rate cut this week, the World Bank weighed in with a gloomy prediction about China that received scant coverage. For emerging-market investors who missed the story, the World Bank’s assessment of China’s economic performance in 2009 could reshape their strategy for portfolio allocation.

That said, China’s economy is still on track to post impressive growth during a global financial crisis. Unfortunately, this growth won’t meet initial forecasts.

In its latest quarterly report, the World Bank revised China’s growth downward to 7.5% from an earlier projection of 9.2%. The change reflects the World Bank’s view that Beijing isn’t doing enough to shift the country’s reliance away from waning exports to more robust domestic growth.

The Chinese economy grew by 11.9% 2007, in what appears to be the peak in double-digit expansion since 2002. Now facing single-digit prospects in 2009, China’s slower-than-expected advance call into question the

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During the Great Depression, a spike in protectionism deepened the global crisis for many countries. Sara Nunnally says greater co-operation between Asian and Latin American states should prevent a similar mistake being made this year. It should also help keep some of these nations out of recession.

This from Taipan’s Emerging Markets blog:

Members of APEC, Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation, ended their annual summits today in Lima, Peru. One of the main topics, besides the economic crisis, was free trade.

(By the way, APEC consists of member economies like China, Vietnam, the U.S., Canada, Russia, Peru, and Chile, among others.)

Free trade is a hot topic right now, with the dreaded “P” word floating about: protectionism. Protectionism is when governments restrict or restrain international trade. Most times the intent is to protect local markets from competition.

Like if the U.S. government says a tomato farmer in Mexico can no longer export

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