EMERGING MARKETS-Rallying dollar hammers Latam FX, Brazil's real sinks 2% on politics

  • 7/6/2021
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* MSCI"s EMFX index hits two-month low * Mexican peso down 0.8%, Chile, Colombian FX down over 1% * Stocks track global sentiment lower * Televisa drops after scaling November 2018 highs (Rewrites throughout, updates prices) By Ambar Warrick and Susan Mathew July 6 (Reuters) - Emerging market currencies slumped to a two-month low on Tuesday, with Brazil"s real looking to post its worst session in four months, hammered by political woes, sliding commodity prices and a rallying dollar. The real extended losses into a sixth straight session, sinking 2% on concerns over corruption scandals in the country, which implicate President Jair Bolsonaro. Recent losses in the real have cost it its title of the best performing emerging market currency this year. Sliding copper prices saw Chile"s peso fall 1.6%, its biggest percentage drop in seven weeks, while steep losses in oil prices, which had scaled multi-month highs on OPEC+ output uncertainty, pushed Mexico"s peso to a two-week trough, while Colombia"s currency gave up 1.2% to hit a two-month low. Along with losses elsewhere in the EM world, MSCI"s index of EM currencies slipped half a percent, marking losses in six out of the last seven days. But with many EM central banks turning hawkish to stave off inflation, interest differentials keep them attractive for carry trade. "In this sense, we could see the high-yielding currencies (especially those backed by hawkish central banks) outperforming the low-yielding currencies in the coming weeks," ING analysts wrote in a note. The dollar rallied in the run-up to minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve"s June meeting due on Wednesday, with investors looking for further clues on the timeline for tapering stimulus or hiking interest rates. The bank"s unexpectedly hawkish tilt last months had sent risk-driven assets spiraling. Sentiment globally took a beating on economic uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic with the new variant spreading fast. World stocks retreated from all-time highs, with Wall Street indexes in the red. Main Latam benchmarks dropped between 1.1% and 3%. Losses on Mexico"s IPC index were led by Grupo Televisa, which slid over 5% after hitting an over 2-1/2 year high last session when it reported a 25% jump in net profit in the second quarter. The world"s largest producer of Spanish-language content said that it is already producing content for the launch next year of a new streaming service as part of its content merger with Univision. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies 1847 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1344.36 -0.75 MSCI LatAm 2523.03 -2.98 Brazil Bovespa 124866.38 -1.62 Mexico IPC 49990.98 -1.11 Chile IPSA 4193.56 -2.19 Argentina MerVal 63371.07 -2.278 Colombia COLCAP 1274.14 -1.18 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.1974 -2.11 Mexico peso 20.0119 -0.82 Chile peso 747.4 -1.57 Colombia peso 3780.75 -1.10 Peru sol 3.9475 -0.66 Argentina peso 95.9100 -0.01 (interbank) (Reporting by Ambar Warrick; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Sonya Hepinstall) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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