NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras  (PBR) - Get Report are down 3.49% to $5.39 on heavy volume in afternoon trading Tuesday, as a stronger dollar is pushing down oil prices.

The strength in the dollar affects commodities like oil, that are priced in dollars by making them more expensive for holders of other currencies, according to Reuters.

WTI crude for April delivery was trading down 3.06% to $48.47 as of 1:46 p.m. ET today, while Brent crude was also down 3.98% to $56.20 a barrel.

Also, the Energy Information Administration revised its 2015 domestic oil production outlook. The agency expects total oil production to increase to 9.35 million barrels per day, higher than the 9.3 million barrels per day forecast from last month.

Yesterday, a Brazilian court outlined the alleged use of Swiss bank accounts for bribes in the Petrobras scandal in its documents, the Financial Times reported.

A former Petrobras executive and a key witness said that he laundered about $100 million in bribes partly through accounts in several Swiss banks, FT added.

About 45.91 million shares of Petrobras have exchanged hands as of 1:59 p.m. ET today, compared to its average trading volume of about 45.06 million shares a day,

Brazil-based Petrobras is an integrated oil and gas company, engaged in the research, extraction, refining, processing, trade and transport of oil from wells, shale and other rocks.

Insight from TheStreet's Research Team:

Sham Gad commented on Petrobras in a recent post on RealMoney.com. Here is what Gad had to say about the stock:

I've commented frequently on investing in businesses trading at 52-week lows or at historically low prices. I've discussed the merits of buying into companies at points of maximum pessimism. But I've also highlighted the caveat that one should be careful when investing in this manner so as to not confuse opportunity with value trap.

There are some opportunities today that look like incredibly attractive long-term bets -- and they indeed may be -- but the risk is just not worth it. I'm willing to lose 5% to 10% of my capital if there is a compelling case that the upside is 100% or greater. However, taking on a risk of 20% or more for the same return is not an attractive bet in my view.

One stock in this category is Brazilian energy giant Petrobras (PBR). Trading under $7, the stock is down from $21 a year ago. Years ago, the company was valued much higher. It looks awfully attractive, trading at 6x earnings as well. Over the past several months, the company has been rocked by a bribery scandal that now appears to involve international investors. Last week, the CEO and five other senior executives left the company.

As Petrobras is controlled by the state, one may be tempted to assume that in the end, Brazil will do what is necessary to save it. That's likely true, but saving the company does not mean protecting the public equity holders, who are minority shareholders in this case. So while shares may double in the year to come, the downside is fraught with so many uncertainties. The biggest of those is the fact that there are no defined laws that will protect the equity holder.

-Sham Gad, 'Two Tempting Stocks You Should Avoid' originally published 2/10/2015 on RealMoney.com.

Want more information like this from Sham Gad BEFORE your stock moves? Learn more about RealMoney.com now.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate PETROBRAS-PETROLEO BRASILIER (PBR) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed, some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and poor profit margins." You can view the full analysis from the report here: PBR Ratings Report

PBR data by YCharts