By Carla Mozee

Mexican stocks extended their losing streak Tuesday as warnings about corporate results and a slow economic-recovery process streamed from the U.S., Mexico's largest trading partner, while Brazilian stocks gained ground after sharp losses in the previous session.

Mexico's IPC fell 0.5% to 21,047.30. The index, which tracks the 35 most actively traded shares, has finished in the red since Jan. 5, bringing its year-to-date decline to 9.5%.

Among decliners Tuesday, mining firm Industrias Penoles slumped 3.6% and electronics retailer Grupo Elektra dropped 3.5%.

Communication stocks lost 1.3%, with shares of Telefonos de Mexico (TMX) down 1% and Carso Global Telecom closing with a 3.5% decline. Shares of market heavyweight and wireless services company America Movil (AMX), however, rose 0.8%.

A 3.6% rise in shares of cement maker Cemex (CX) helped limit losses on the broader market, up 3.6%. They stumbled 9.3% on Monday.

Investors in Latin America's second-largest equity market watched stocks on Wall Street came under pressure after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the timing and the strength of the global economic recovery "are highly uncertain." He also told a London audience that a recovery would only be successful if the financial system is stabilized, and that the U.S. government needs to pump more money into the system.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 0.3% but the S&P 500 Index (SPX) reversed course late in the session to finish up 0.2%.

A bumpy start to the fourth-quarter earnings season also weighed. Weaker demand for metals and restructuring costs led aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. to lose more than $1 billion. Meanwhile, shares of General Electric (GE) dropped after Barclays Capital said that ratings agency Moody's may downgrade the conglomerate's shares if the company turns in a dismal fourth-quarter report.

In Brazil, the Bovespa index rose 0.4% to 39,544.23 after falling as much as 2% during the day. The benchmark dropped 5.2% on Monday as resource stocks were rocked by a slide in commodity prices.

But the first gain in crude-oil prices in six sessions only modestly helped shares of market heavyweight Petrobras (PBR). They rose 0.8%. Petrobras said Tuesday it exported an average of 620,000 barrels of oil a day in December, better than the previous record of 574,000 barrels a day.

Petrobras also said its board will review the company's strategic plan for 2009-2013 later this month, according to the Estado newswire. The release of the plan had been delayed as worldwide economic conditions deteriorated.

Crude-oil prices for February delivery edged up 0.5% to $37.18 a barrel as OPEC's biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, talked about the possibility that it will cut production by more than the cartel's previously set target.

Shares of Petrobras and those of its Petrobras Energia (PZE) unit traded in Argentina rose 1.8% and 3%, respectively, lifting the Argentina's benchmark, the Merval, up 0.4%.

The near-term prospect for commodities continues to be derailed by "the deepening global slump and the loss of appetite for risk in the aftermath of the near-collapse of credit markets," said analysts at BMO Capital Markets in a research note Tuesday.

The firm said its short- and medium-term forecasts for commodity prices "continue to have a pessimistic slant," and that it foresees only a modest turnaround in the latter part of the year.

"Investors should look for signs of an economic bottom, an end to downward price pressures and rising long-bond yields as signals for better times to come for material-based equities," said BMO.

"Stocks usually start rebounding well ahead of the real economy and gold trends higher about a year before inflation becomes an issue."

Gold futures ended almost unchanged Tuesday, but copper fell 3.9% and silver lost 0.7% to $10.68 an ounce.

Shares of Brazilian miner Vale (RIO) climbed 2.2%. They dropped 7.3% in the previous session.

Chile's IPSA closed the session up 2 points at 2,470.06.

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