NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - 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.
- Dollar weakens as Fed rate hike bets ease; Latam FX 0.5%
- Chilean Peso extends Friday rally on FX intervention cheer
- Bolsonaro to share concerns about Brazil election with diplomats
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, 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 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.
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.
