Slipping commodity prices, firmer dollar weigh on Latam FX
Argentina signs off on $21.66 billion in fiscal liquidity bill
Mexico's Arca Continental stock falls despite core profit ticking up
Latam stocks down 3.1%, FX off 1.8%
Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET/1930 GMT
By Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan
July 18 (Reuters) -Chile's peso led losses across resources-rich Latin America on Thursday, tracking a decline in prices of base metals, while uncertainty around U.S. elections and a firmer dollar further ramped up the selling pressure.
The Mexican peso MXN= dipped 1.7% against the dollar to 17.99, breaching the psychologically important barrier of 18, while Colombia's peso COP= shed 1.4%, touching an over one-week low.
Brazil's real BRL= weakened 1.8% to an over two-week low, as prices of iron ore, the country's top export, extended the previoussession's losses.
World's biggest copper producer Chile's peso CLP= depreciated 1.9% to hit an over two-week low intraday, as prices of the red metal neared three-month lows without new stimulus from a key political meeting in China and investors switching from copper to gold to bet on earlier interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve. MET/L
"Barring a surprise from Chinese policy announcements, the fast decline in commodity demand expectations suggest downside convexity is still rising," Daniel Ghali, senior commodity strategist at TD Securities, wrote in a note.
Fellow copper producer Peru's sol PEN= slipped 0.5% as well.
Most currencies in the region are heading for weekly losses between 1% and 3% as traders reacted to a possible second term for U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, whosepolicies on trade, security and immigration are seen as negative for Latin American economies, most of which are led by left-leaning governments.
PresidentJoe Biden's reelection bid faced fresh turmoil after reports that top Democratic leaders had privately pushed him to end his campaign.
A broader gauge for regional currencies .MILA00000CUS also dropped 1.8% as the greenbackfirmed after data showed U.S. jobless claims rose more than expected last week, although it is not considered to be a notable shift in the labor market due to seasonal factors.
Meanwhile, MSCI's index tracking regional bourses .MILA00000PUS weakened 3.1%, to an over one-week low, with Brazil's Bovespa .BVSP falling close to 1.5%.
Mexico's main stock index .MXX shed about 1%. Arca Continental AC.MX declined 0.5% despite the bottler posting upbeat second-quarter core profit, bolstered by positive volume performance.
Meanwhile in Argentina, the local government gave the green light to issue up to 20 trillion pesos ($21.66 billion) in a one-year fiscal liquidity bill, its latest move to mop up excess peso trading.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:
Latest | Daily % change | |
MSCI Emerging Markets .MSCIEF | 1104.06 | -0.67 |
MSCI LatAm .MILA00000PUS | 2237.55 | -3.05 |
Brazil Bovespa .BVSP | 127604.47 | -1.43 |
Mexico IPC .MXX | 53219.44 | -0.98 |
Chile IPSA .SPIPSA | 6559.93 | -0.13 |
Argentina MerVal .MERV | 1528903.63 | 0.289 |
Colombia COLCAP .COLCAP | 1363.61 | -0.19 |
Currencies | Latest | Daily % change |
Brazil real BRBY | 5.5795 | -1.71 |
Mexico peso MXN=D2 | 17.9998 | -1.71 |
Chile peso CLP=CL | 942.9 | -1.86 |
Colombia peso COP= | 4048.73 | -1.40 |
Peru sol PEN=PE | 3.7301 | -0.51 |
Argentina peso (interbank) ARS=RASL | 924.5000 | -0.11 |
Argentina peso (parallel) ARSB= | 1435 | 1.39 |
Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by David Evans and Lisa Shumaker
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