Most Latam FX fall at the end choppy week; focus on US elections
Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET/ 1430 GMT
Brazil's Vale rises after Q3 profit beat
Elections in Uruguay this weekend
By Shashwat Chauhan
Oct 25 (Reuters) -Most Latin American currencies slipped after rising in the last session on Friday, capping of a week of nervy trading in lead-up to the U.S. presidential elections.
Brazil's real BRL= led declines, down 0.3% to 5.6829 per dollar after rising for the last three session, while Mexico's peso MXN= also eased 0.3% in volatile trading.
Colombia's peso COP= held firm at 4,293.14 per dollar, while Chile's peso CLP= weakened 0.3% to 949.3 per greenback.
Most currencies in Latin America traded cautiously this week as market participants scaled back bets of large Fed rate cuts and gauged Donald Trump's possible return as the U.S. president heading into the elections on Nov. 5.
"Markets are now in a mini regime of heightened volatility ahead of US elections, with polling outcomes still very close to 50-50," analysts at Citi wrote in a morning note.
"The risk appetite remains low as the results can be binary, especially for some EM jurisdictions."
Trump's proposed policies on taxes and tariffs are seen as inflationary, likely keeping U.S. interest rates high and undermining the currencies of trading partners such as Mexico.
MSCI's gauge for Latin American stocks .MILA00000PUS added 0.5%, with the Brazilian benchmark .BVSP up 0.3%.
Brazilian miner Vale VALE3.SA, one of the world's largest iron ore producers, rose 2.5% after beating third quarter profit estimates.
Meanwhile, Argentina's dollar-denominated sovereign bonds extended gains after the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) late on Wednesday granted the country with $8.8 billion in financing.
The security maturing in 2029 US040114HX11=TE rose more than 1.6 cents on the dollar, last bid at 71.17 cents.
The International Monetary Fund on Friday urged governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to target economic policies aimed at boosting potential growth, saying their reform agenda is currently "thin" while activity is expected to moderate in key economies.
Elsewhere in emerging markets, Russia's central bank hiked its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 21%, the highest level since the early years of President Vladimir Putin's rule, when Russia was recovering from the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This coming weekend, citizens of Georgia and Uruguay will be headed to the polls for national elections.
EM stocks saw their biggest weekly outflow since April 2020 of $7.2 billion in the week till Wednesday, while debt also saw outflows, according to a Bank of America report.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:
Equities | Latest | Daily % change |
MSCI Emerging Markets .MSCIEF | 1135.75 | 0.11 |
MSCI LatAm .MILA00000PUS | 2179.67 | 0.48 |
Brazil Bovespa .BVSP | 130471.39 | 0.31 |
Mexico IPC .MXX | 52058.75 | 0.51 |
Chile IPSA .SPIPSA | 6758.6 | 0.49 |
Argentina Merval .MERV | 1872477.68 | 1.215 |
Colombia COLCAP .COLCAP | 1338.97 | 0.1 |
Currencies | Latest | Daily % change |
Brazil real BRL= | 5.6829 | -0.33 |
Mexico peso MXN= | 19.8533 | -0.31 |
Chile peso CLP= | 949.3 | -0.27 |
Colombia peso COP= | 4293.14 | 0.03 |
Peru sol PEN= | 3.755 | -0.08 |
Argentina peso (interbank) ARS=RASL | 985.5 | 0.00 |
Argentina peso (parallel) ARSB= | 1195 | 1.67 |
Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru;
Editing by Alistair Bell
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