50-Minute Blackout is Signal for Brazil Investors to Sell
This article is for subscribers only.
At 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 19 in Sao Paulo, trader Pedro Paulo Afonso’s instant message blew up with questions from asset managers.
A phone on the operations desk rang, then another and another, and soon all 15 traders at TOV Corretora, one of Brazil’s biggest brokerages, were hearing the same thing: a power failure had swept across half of Brazil. Sell utilities.