Brazil: Stocks Ease from Record.

Brazil's Ibovespa was over 0.5% down from the record high in the previous session to drop under the 165,000 threshold on Friday, pressured by broad-based losses across most major sectors as markets continued to gauge the outlook of Brazilian interest rates. The IBC-Br economic activity index, largely seen as a preview for official GDP aggregates, jumped by 0.7% from the previous month in November, firmly ahead of market expectations of 0.3%, to mark the sharpest increase since March of the previous year. The data added to a series of signs of resilient levels of growth, including record-low unemployment, rebounds for PMIs, and a rebound in retail sales, limiting the urgency for rate cuts by the central bank this year. Retail stocks and banks were sharply lower, with Assai, Itau, and Bradesco dropping more than 1%.