Brazilian real, Mexican peso worst hit in weak Latam FX trading
Brazil's cenbank not cornered into raising rates- director
Mexico cenbank minutes underscore disagreements over rate cut
Mexico's GDP, inflation data support September rate cut bets
Brazil's Vibra to buy remaining stake in Comerc
Updated at 4:03 p.m. ET/ 2003 GMT
By Shubham Batra and Ankika Biswas
Aug 22 (Reuters) -Brazil's real and Mexico's peso spearheaded a broad-based fall in Latin American currencies on Thursday, while stocks also withered, as the dollar gained ahead of the all-important speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday.
MSCI's gauge of Latam currencies .MILA00000CUS fell nearly 2%, dropping for the third straight session.
The Brazilian real weakened nearly 2% against the greenback, down for the third day to a two-week low, emerging as the worst-hit Latam currency on the day.
The country's central bank monetary policy director Gabriel Galipolo said he disagrees with those who interpret his recent statements as suggesting the central bank is cornered into raising interest rates.
This comes in light of the July policy meeting minutes earlier this month that showed the central bank won't hesitate to raise interest rates if necessary to bring inflation down.
"So far, we maintain our view of no Selic rate increase as the most likely outcome, but incoming data/events will be crucial to calibrate our expectations, given the data dependent approach that has been adopted by the Copom," Citi analysts said.
The Mexican peso MXN= also dropped 1% to an over two-week low, extending its decline for a fourth session, after a series of data showed inflation slowed more than expected while growth remained tepid, opening the door to a new rate cut next month.
The day was also marked by Mexico's policy meeting minutes that revealed two members of the Bank of Mexico's five-person governing board saw the August rate cut as premature and flagged it could undermine the bank's credibility.
Among others, Colombia's peso COP= and Chile's peso CLP= fell nearly 1% and 0.3%, while Peru's sol PEN= also erased early gains to fall 0.3%.
All eyes will be on Powell at 10 a.m. ET on Friday at the Jackhole Hole economic symposium. His comments will provide investors much-needed rate guidance to investors, who have fully priced in a 25 basis point cut in September.
A gauge of Latin American stocks .MILA00000PUS also dropped around 3%, on track for its biggest one-day drop since early June, dragged down by Brazilian and Mexican stocks.
Brazil's benchmark stock index .BVSP fell almost 1% after hitting a fresh record high in the last session.
Brazilian fuel distributor Vibra VBBR3.SA tumbled nearly 4% afterit had signed an agreement to exercise its right to buy the remaining stake in power generator and trader Comerc for 3.52 billion reais ($642 million).
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2003 GMT:
Equities | Latest | Daily % change |
MSCI Emerging Markets .MSCIEF | 1099.61 | -0.12 |
MSCI LatAm .MILA00000PUS | 2253.95 | -2.67 |
Brazil Bovespa .BVSP | 135173.89 | -0.95 |
Mexico IPC .MXX | 53525.35 | -0.63 |
Chile IPSA .SPIPSA | 6470.17 | -0.39 |
Argentina Merval .MERV | 1584215.77 | -2.274 |
Colombia COLCAP .COLCAP | 1335.52 | -0.88 |
Currencies | Latest | Daily % change |
Brazil real BRL= | 5.5893 | -1.89 |
Mexico peso MXN= | 19.4738 | -1.06 |
Chile peso CLP= | 918.83 | -0.32 |
Colombia peso COP= | 4064.5 | -0.94 |
Peru sol PEN= | 3.7427 | -0.25 |
Argentina peso (interbank) ARS=RASL | 945 | -0.052910053 |
Argentina peso (parallel) ARSB= | 1330 | 1.879699248 |
Reporting by Shubham Batra and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; editing by David Evans and Aurora Ellis
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