Chilean peso leads Latam FX higher as dollar takes a breather

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Some Latin American currencies rose

against a retreating dollar on Monday as a flight to safety

waned on easing bets around the U.S. Federal Reserve’s

aggressive rate tightening campaign, with Chile’s peso leading

the charge with a more than 3% jump.

The currency hit its highest level since July 17,

after Andean country’s central bank agreed last week to a $25

billion intervention due to the strong advance of the greenback.

Also supporting the currency, prices of Chile’s top export,

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copper, rebounded on news about government support for the

China’s economy.

The dollar, meanwhile, slipped to a one-week low as

traders pared bets on how aggressively the Fed will hike rates

this month. Currencies rose 0.5% to their

highest since July 13.

Oil exporter Colombia’s peso jumped 1.06% as crude

prices firmed amid gas supply concerns after Russia’s Gazprom

declared force majeure on supplies to Europe, while

Mexico’s peso added 0.4%.

“We’ve gotten to a point where the world is in chaos, and

the dollar merits strength, but it doesn’t need to be exceeding

any further,” said Juan Perez, director of trading at Monex USA.

“But until we have something that determines the

(Russia-Ukraine) war is going to have a ceasefire, or that

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they’re in the midst of negotiations, you’re not going to have a

serious comeback for the currencies,” Perez added.

Latam stocks rose 0.4%, paring gains after

climbing as much 2.5%. Wall Street’s main indexes also erased

gains to trade lower in afternoon trading.

Stocks in recent weeks have been roiled by rising inflation

and interest rates, cooling commodity prices as well as economic

strains in China adding to supply-side worries.

Argentina’s peso underperformed to slip 0.5%, while

Peru’s sol was up 0.4%. Peru’s economy expanded 2.28% in

May compared with a year earlier, the government said on Friday.

That was a lower growth pace compared to the last three months,

due in part to a drop in key mining production.

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Meanwhile, Mexico’s tech startups may be enjoying a boom,

but its top stars are unlikely to list on the country’s own

stock market, the national exchange’s chief executive told

Reuters in an interview last week.

Brazil’s real was down 0.2% after rising as much 1.1%

earlier in the session.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro invited foreign diplomats

to a briefing at his residence to share his concerns about the

security of the electoral process ahead of October elections in

which he is trailing in a bid for a second term.

Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1909

GMT:

Stock indexes Latest Daily % change

MSCI Emerging Markets 979.52 1.84

MSCI LatAm 1961.12 0.51

Brazil Bovespa 96727.35 0.18

Mexico IPC 47041.14 -0.07

Chile IPSA 5082.13 -0.19

Argentina MerVal 105439.51 1.167

Colombia COLCAP 1275.42 0.1

Currencies Latest Daily % change

Brazil real 5.4154 -0.20

Mexico peso 20.4481 0.36

Chile peso 942.9 3.03

Colombia peso 4304.07 1.06

Peru sol 3.89 0.07

Argentina peso (interbank) 128.8800 -0.50

Argentina peso (parallel) 286 2.45

(Reporting by Anisha Sircar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru;

Editing by Paul Simao and Alistair Bell)