VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Due to the lower cost of regulatory fines, HSBC's pre-tax profit in the third quarter increased 32 percent to $6.1 billion from $4.6 billion in the same period last year, beating analysts' expectations of $5.2 billion.

Housing advocacy groups claim that local governments in Brazil are using the Olympics to defend forced evictions and segregation in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, the Ghana Olympic Committee has held a meeting with National Federation Presidents to prepare towards the2016 Games.

Brazil analysts expect faster inflation and lesser cuts in the base interest rate for 2016, as political crisis hinders the moves to strengthen fiscal accounts and avoid another sovereign downgrade to junk.

Hyundai Motor Co's net profit for the third quarter ending September fell 23 percent. The steep fall in China sales coupled with aggressive global incentives impacted the South Korean automobile major's performance in a more negative way.

Nestlé's sales from Asia, Oceania and Africa (AOA) region went down 3% and the company whose brands range from Nescafe and KitKat to Perrier has less sales growth forecast for 2015 to around 4.5%. This is way back below its broader objective of 5 to 6% growth in the succeeding years.

The labor market in Brazil, one of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations, is fast worsening owing to intensifying recession in the domestic economy. The unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent from the record low of 4.3 percent at the end of 2014. Many industrial estates in Brazil are running down signaling next big crisis for the economy.

The commodities-fuelled boom has transformed many millions of Brazilian poor people into 'the new middle class' and the ongoing recession is again eroding their spending and earning capacity. Middle-class people in Brazil find it difficult to sustain their living standards amid intensifying economy recession and soaring inflation rate. Many owners of small shops, coffee stalls and other small vendors see their dwindling earnings by more than half during the past three years. As a result, many middle-class people are slashing their spending levels, which result in a cascading impact on other segments.

The slump business in the mining industry had led Caterpillar to reduce its revenue expectation for this year. The latest revenue projection is $48 billion which is 25 percent lower compared to the last 4 years. The reduction means not only the company will suffer, but its heavy machinery parts supplier is feeling the effects too.

Facebook introduces the 360-degree video. It is a new feature which will let you roll videos in any angle. The new feature will be accessible first on the web and Android devices.

Brazil is to detach its internet connection with U.S., Telebras CEO Jorge Bittar said. A submarine cable with over 30 tbps will be installed from Lisbon to Fortaleza. This would boost Internet speed with Europe in 2017.

The latest data for August shows that Russia's economy is showing signs of slowing down. But the rate of decline is moderating, the real sector data is giving a sigh of relief as the worst conditions in the economy are softening, if not improving.

Brazil's investment-grade credit falls beyond correction and into junk territory as Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's debt Wednesday. According to a report from The Guardian, Standard & Poor's said that Brazil lost its investment-grade status as it is projected with a negative outlook. This downgrade is unfortunate as the nation enters a recession.

The widening budget deficit has become a cause of concern for the Brazil. To speed up the economic recovery, the country needs a tax hike to ease the burden, the country's Chief of Staff Aloizio Mercadante said.

Jan Koum, Whatsapp founder announced it on Facebook that the messaging app had reached 900 million users. Behind its first achievement, Facebook is aiming for 1 billion monthly users worldwide.

Russia has come up with a new law that empowers the government to not only block websites but also orders them to share data of Russian citizens.