Investors Trapped as Venezuela Sanctions Halt Bond Trading

Bondholders at nine investment firms and hedge funds from New York, Miami, London and Berlin said they had stopped trading sovereign notes and debt from the state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela after the U.S. Treasury Department issued instructions they interpreted as forbidding most transactions.Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that are U.S. persons “may not buy, sell, or otherwise engage in transactions related to debt, equity or other holdings in blocked persons and must block s