BOGOTA, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Latin American currency and stock markets closed mixed on Friday, amid a slew of macroeconomic data from the United States that will be crucial for monetary policy decision-making in that country next year.
* Investors followed the rhythm of the dollar, which fell during the session but completed its ninth straight weekly advance on signs that the U.S. economy remains strong toward the end of the third quarter.
* “The rise in the US dollar combined with the fall in US Treasury yields can be seen as a sign that risk is increasing,” said Pierre Veyret, technical analyst at ActivTrades.
* The Chilean peso closed up 0.76% at 882.50/882.80 units per dollar, up 1.59% on a weekly basis. The main index of the Santiago Stock Exchange, the IPSA, gave up a large part of its gains in the first hour and closed the session with a slight increase of 0.01% and just above the barrier of six thousand points at 6,002.67 units.
* The Mexican peso rose 0.24% near 17.0631 units per dollar; while the S&P/BMV IPC stock index fell 0.78% to 51,351.60 points, weighed down by investor caution on a day of “quadruple witching” that saw high volatility due to the expiry of stock options on Wall Street is to be observed.
* On the other hand, the Brazilian real gave up initial gains to close 0.13% lower at 4.8731 units per dollar and the Bovespa stock index fell 0.44% to 118,865.38 points.
* Peru’s currency, the sol, depreciated 0.11% to 3.715/3.718 units per dollar. Meanwhile, the Lima Stock Exchange benchmark fell one percentage point to 594.66 points.
* The Colombian peso lost a marginal 0.07% to 3,929 units per dollar after seven gains; while the local stock market’s stock index, the MSCI COLCAP, rose 1.48% to 1,098.66 points.
* In Argentina, the peso hovered in equilibrium at 350.05 units per dollar due to the central bank’s intervention, the leading Argentine index S&P Merval fell 0.74% from a bullish start to 567,513.42 units as a preliminary close, as thereafter gains This represents an improvement of 7.65% over the previous three sessions.
