JPMorgan has delayed a key decision on whether to lift the weighting of Venezuela's bonds in its widely-followed EMBI index series by a month, with the next update due by Feb. 29. The move came as the United States reintroduced some sanctions on Venezuela after President Nicolas Maduro's main opposition rival, Maria Corina Machado, was barred at the weekend from running in the upcoming elections. Venezuela's bonds and those of its state oil firm PDVSA have had a "zero weighting" in JPMorgan's influential index since 2019 when Washington banned U.S. investors from trading them as part of a plan to put pressure on Maduro's administration.