Latam FX, stocks drop as commodity prices slide
Updated at 10:32 a.m. ET/ 1432 GMT
Brazil's economy expanded 1.4% in Q2 vs 0.9% estimate
Colombia's peso hits four-week low
Latam stocks down 0.6%, FX off 0.1%
By Shashwat Chauhan
Sept 3 (Reuters) -Currencies of resources-rich Latin American countries slid on Tuesday as prices of commodities such as copper and crude oil came under pressure, with most equity indexes clocking declines as well.
Brazil's real BRL= pared its initial gains to fall 0.1% against the dollar in volatile trading, tracking declining iron ore prices. IRONORE/
Data showed the Brazilian economy surprised to the upside in the second quarter, increasing bets on an imminent interest rate hike to curb inflationary pressures.
"Based on the outturns for the first half of the year, the economy looks set to expand by around 3% over this year as a whole," said William Jackson, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.
"But this is above Brazil's potential rate and is going to add fuel to the debate about whether Copom will raise interest rates."
Mexico's peso MXN= slipped 0.1% early on. Investors awaited the outcome of the debate about a controversial judicial reform in Mexico's Lower House of Congress scheduled for Tuesday.
Oil producer Colombia's peso COP= dropped 1.2% to its lowest in more than four weeks as crude oil prices slumped.
Bloomberg News reported that a deal was imminent to resolve a dispute that has halted Libyan production and exports, pushing crude prices to their lowest since around the beginning of the year. O/R
Currencies of top copper producer Chile's peso CLP= and Peru's sol PEN= eased 1% and 0.7%, respectively, as prices of the red metal touched more than two-week lows. MET/L
Meanwhile, the dollar index =USD was muted after data showed U.S. manufacturing edged up last month from an eight-month low in July amid some improvement in employment, but the overall trend continued to point to subdued factory activity.
The data comes ahead of Friday's all-important August non-farm payrolls (NFP) report that could offer clues on the magnitude of an expected rate cut by the Federal Reserve later this month.
MSCI's index for Latin American currencies .MILA00000CUS slipped 0.1%, while a gauge for stocks .MILA00000PUS lost 0.6%.
Mexico's benchmark .MXX dropped 1.7% and heavyweight Brazilian shares .BVSP dipped 0.4%, in tandem with a broad decline on Wall Street. .N
Later this week, interest rate decisions in Argentina, Chile, Poland, Malaysia and Egypt are likely to be on investors' radar.
Meanwhile in Venezuela, the country's attorney general's office said a court has issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, accusing him of conspiracy and other crimes.
HIGHLIGHTS
** Lebanon ex-central bank chief Riad Salameh arrested over financial crimes
** Mexico July seasonally adjusted jobless rate 2.7%
** South African economy gains momentum but not as much as forecast
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:
Equities | Latest | Daily % change |
MSCI Emerging Markets .MSCIEF | 1090.23 | -0.56 |
MSCI LatAm .MILA00000PUS | 2222.25 | -0.55 |
Brazil Bovespa .BVSP | 134413.97 | -0.36 |
Mexico IPC .MXX | 51592.58 | -1.72 |
Chile IPSA .SPIPSA | 6399.59 | -0.88 |
Argentina Merval .MERV | 1727405.62 | -1.563 |
Colombia COLCAP .COLCAP | 1349.2 | -0.44 |
Currencies | Latest | Daily % change |
Brazil real BRL= | 5.622 | -0.08 |
Mexico peso MXN= | 19.826 | -0.07 |
Chile peso CLP= | 926.54 | -1.03 |
Colombia peso COP= | 4193.84 | -1.21 |
Peru sol PEN= | 3.78 | -0.71 |
Argentina peso (interbank) ARS=RASL | 953 | 0 |
Argentina peso (parallel) ARSB= | 1295 | 0.772200772 |
Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Alex Richardson
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