Brazil real halts 3-day winning streak on political jitters
Reuters
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 7 The Brazilian real fell nearly 1 percent on Thursday after three days of gains as concerns that President Dilma Rousseff might fail to pass crucial austerity measures outweighed bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve will refrain from raising rates this year. The real strengthened to as much as 3.79 per dollar earlier in the session but trimmed gains later as Brazil’s Congress put off a vote on whether to back or overturn Rousseff’s vetoes of two bills that would increase spending over the next few years. The vote was postponed for a fourth time after Rousseff was unable to secure enough support for the vetoes, despite a cabinet reshuffle last week that was meant to appease her unruly coalition base. The real last traded at 3.87 per dollar, 0.9 percent weaker on the day. Other Latin American currencies such as those of Mexico and Colombia were steady to stronger as risk appetite continued to be supported by bets that the Fed will raise rates only in 2016. “Those who were selling dollars (in Brazil) over the past few days are buying now,” said a local currency trader who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media. “Nobody wants to wait and see if the political problems will get sorted out.” Another headache for Rousseff was an expected rejection later on Wednesday of her administration’s 2014 accounts by a federal audit court. The decision, if confirmed, would give Rousseff’s opponents an argument to request her impeachment. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1815 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 849.32 2.49 -13.35 MSCI LatAm 2045.93 0.77 -25.56 Brazil Bovespa 48583.71 1.78 -2.85 Mexico IPC 43723.61 0.37 1.34 Chile IPSA 3797.02 0.55 -1.40 Chile IGPA 18548.1 0.37 -1.71 Argentina MerVal 10867.43 1.61 26.67 Colombia IGBC 9677.49 1.07 -16.82 Venezuela IBC 11726.47 -3.1 203.89 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.8754 -0.86 -31.43 Mexico peso 16.641 0.01 -11.40 Chile peso 679.25 0.15 -10.73 Colombia peso 2897.5 0.59 -17.58 Peru sol 3.2231 -0.09 -7.57 Argentina peso (interbank) 9.4500 0.00 -9.52 Argentina peso (parallel) 15.7 0.25 -10.83 (Reporting by Walter Brandimarte and Bruno Federowski; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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