BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's environmental agency has levied $64 million in fines against 23 meatpacking companies and their suppliers for buying and selling cattle raised illegally on deforested land in the Amazon.
The operation, dubbed Cold Meat 2, launched last week. It tracked 18,000 head of cattle raised in 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) of pasture that has been banned for commercial use due to illegal deforestation. The agents also apprehended 8,854 head of cattle found inside the restricted areas. News of the fines began emerging over the weekend.
Cattle raising is the main driver of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, with 90% of the area cleared between 1985 and 2023 converted to pasture. That represents 227,800 square miles (590,000 square kilometers), slightly larger than France. As a result, 14% of the Amazon is covered by grazing land, according to MapBiomas, a network of nongovernmental organizations that monitors land use.
“We are inspecting the production chain to hold offenders accountable for acquiring products from deforestation and to ensure that crime does not pay,” Jair Schmitt, chief of environmental protection at Brazil’s federal environmental agency, known as Ibama, told The Associated Press.
Among those fined was JBS, the world's largest meat-packing company. JBS has applied to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a move that has faced opposition from some U.S. lawmakers and environmental nonprofits. It's not clear when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may make a decision on JBS' bid.
The JBS fine was $108,000 for purchasing 1,231 head of cattle, the fifth largest penalty among the fined companies.
The operation followed three months of investigation by Ibama's intelligence unit and is the latest episode linking JBS to illegal deforestation. In December, AP revealed that it is facing lawsuits for allegedly purchasing cattle raised illegally in Jaci-Parana, a protected area in the Brazilian Amazon.
In a statement, JBS denied buying cattle from embargoed areas and said it had already submitted documents to Ibama demonstrating their legal origin. However, the company declined to comment on the Jaci-Parana’s case despite repeated requests for clarification from AP since it published the story.
“JBS has maintained its Responsible Procurement Policy for 15 years and has a geospatial monitoring system in place to ensure that the company does not purchase animals from farms involved in illegal deforestation, encroachment on Indigenous lands or conservation areas that are under embargo by Ibama,” read the statement.
Agropam, a meatpacker in Boca do Acre city, received the largest fine, $493,000, for buying 5,624 head of cattle from illegal areas. The company, which operates under the name of Frizam, sells beef only for Brazil's internal market. A message requesting comment was not returned.
The other top companies targeted were Mafrico, Frigol and 163 Beef. Mafrico and Frigo did not respond to requests for comment left by phone and on their websites. Contact information for 163 Beef was not immediately available, as numbers on its Facebook page were disconnected.
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FILE - Cattle walk along an illegally deforested area in an extractive reserve near Jaci-Parana, Rondonia state, Brazil, July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
FILE - The main entrance of the meat processing company JBS is visible in Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are approaching records Monday ahead of a big week for profit reports from Big Tech stocks. Oil prices, meanwhile, are tumbling toward their worst loss in more than a year.
The S&P 500 was 0.4% higher in afternoon trading. The main measure of the U.S. stock market is coming off its first losing week in the last seven, but it’s still near its all-time high set earlier this month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 293 points, or 0.7%, as of 2:36 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher and flirting with its own record set in July.
Several Big Tech stocks helped lead the way, and five of the behemoths known as the “Magnificent Seven” are on this week’s schedule to report their latest profits. These high-flying stocks have been at the forefront of Wall Street for years and have grown so big that their movements can singlehandedly shift the S&P 500.
After suffering a summertime swoon on worries that their stock prices had risen too quickly when compared with their profits, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon are under pressure to deliver more big growth.
Another member of the Magnificent Seven, Tesla, soared to one of the best days in its history last week after reporting a better profit than analysts expected.
Monday’s gains for Big Tech helped offset drops for stocks in the oil-and-gas industry, which were hurt by the sinking price of oil. Exxon Mobil’s 0.6% drop and ConocoPhillips’ slide of 1.5% were two of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.
A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude fell 6.1%, and Brent crude, the international standard, slid 5.9%. It was the first trading for them since Israel attacked Iranian military targets on Saturday, in retaliation for an earlier barrage of ballistic missiles. Israel’s attack was more restrained than some investors had feared it could be, and it raised hopes that a worst-case scenario may be avoided.
Beyond the violence that is taking a human toll, the worry in financial markets is that an escalating war in the Middle East could cut off the flow of crude from Iran, which is a major oil producer. Such worries had sent the price of Brent crude up to nearly $81 per barrel in early October, despite signals that plenty of oil is available for the global economy. It’s since fallen back below $72.
Financial markets are also dealing with the volatility that typically surrounds a U.S. presidential election, with Election Day fast approaching in two Tuesdays. Markets have historically been shaky heading into an election, only to calm afterward regardless of which party wins.
The trend affects both the stock and the bond markets. In the bond market, Treasury yields were ticking higher to tack more gains onto their sharp rise for the month so far.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.29% from 4.24% late Friday. That's well above the roughly 3.70% level where it was near the start of October.
Yields have climbed as report after report has shown the U.S. economy remains stronger than expected. That’s good news for Wall Street, because it bolsters hopes the economy can escape from the worst inflation in generations without the painful recession that many had worried was inevitable.
But it’s also forcing traders to ratchet back forecasts for how deeply the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates, now that it’s just as focused on keeping the economy humming as getting inflation lower. With bets diminishing on how much the Fed will ultimately cut rates, Treasury yields have also been given back some of their earlier declines.
That means the U.S. jobs report on the schedule for Friday could end up being the market's main event, even bigger than the Big Tech profit reports. Investors want to see more evidence of solid hiring to keep alive the perfect-landing hopes for the economy.
Such data has supplanted inflation reports, which used to be the most important for Wall Street every month but have waned as inflation seems to be heading toward the Fed's target of 2%.
Yields have also climbed as investors have seen former President Donald Trump's chances of re-election improving. Economists say a Trump win could help push inflation higher in the long term, and worsening inflation could push the Fed to hike interest rates.
Trump Media & Technology Group, the company that tends to move more with Trump's re-election odds than on its own profit prospects, jumped 18.9% Monday to $46.27. The parent company of Trump's Truth Social platform has been rallying since hitting a bottom of roughly $12 in late September, though it's still well below its perch above $60 reached in March.
Robinhood Markets rose 3.3% after it said it would begin allowing some of its customers to trade contracts based on whether they think either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris will win the 2024 election.
Delta Air Lines was another winner and rose 3.1% after suing CrowdStrike, claiming the cybersecurity company had cut corners and caused a worldwide technology outage that led to thousands of canceled flight in July.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.8% as the value of the Japanese yen sank after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’ s ruling coalition lost a majority in the 465-seat lower house in a key parliamentary election Sunday.
Stock indexes were mostly higher across much of the rest of Asia and in Europe.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
FILE - The New York Stock Exchange is shown on Sept. 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader works near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
