A roundup of Thursday’s stock market results from across the region
🗽 On Wall Street:
On the one-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. stock markets posted gains as traders navigate the uncertainty generated by the economic crisis derived from the war, and a more aggressive stance by the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 closed up 1.43%, the Nasdaq Composite (CCMPDL) gained 1.93% and the Dow Jones Industrials, advanced 1.02%.
“Wall Street knows the U.S. economy is still pretty good, but it’s trying to figure out how aggressive the Federal Reserve will be with monetary policy tightening, how far oil prices will rise and whether the war in Ukraine will be over in a few months,” said Edward Moya, an analyst at Oanda.
Meanwhile, the labor market is still showing no signs of weakness after initial jobless claims fell to a 53-year low.
🔑 The Day’s Key Events:
Oil prices retreated 3%, after a day of gains on Wednesday following a report that showed U.S. crude inventories had declined in the last week.
On Thursday the market fell as traders weighed the costs of new measures to be announced as soon as Friday by the U.S. and the European Union.
The plan is aimed at reducing the region’s dependence on Russian energy, although it would primarily focus on natural gas flows. “Crude oil trading is choppy as we await more details from today’s NATO meeting and see where Europe’s red line will be in sanctioning Russian energy,” Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Management, told Bloomberg News.
🥇 The Leader:
Chile’s stock market recovered from the setback it showed in the last two sessions and registered the best performance in Latin America. Its main index, the IPSA (IPSA), gained 2.34%.
The energy, materials and information technology sectors showed the best performance during the day, with gains of over 3%. The shares of Itaú Corpbanca (ITAUCORP), Empresas CMPC (CMPC) and copper miner Copec (COPEC) stood out.
The local stock market was favored by the increase in the price of copper, which continues to trade above $10,000.
Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV) advanced 1.36%.
The central bank has taken a more optimistic tone than investors about economic growth this year, as one of the world’s most aggressive monetary tightening cycles slowly comes to an end.
Brazil’s central bank held its gross domestic product forecast for 2022 steady at 1%, according to the quarterly inflation report. Economists consulted project a 0.5% growth this year and 1.3% next year for GDP.
The Mexican stock exchange (MEXBOL) ended with a 1.22% increase, while Argentina’s Merval (MERVAL) remained closed for a holiday.
📉 A Bad Day:
Peru’s stock market had the worst performance among its Latin American peers and was the only one to fall on Thursday.
The S&P BVL Peru fell 1.04%, dragged down by the financial sector, which accumulated a decline of 1.60%.
Shares of Minas de Buenaventura (BUENAVC1), Ferreycorp (FERREYC1) and Inretail Peru (INRETC1) were among the worst performers.
During the day, President Pedro Castillo warned that a “destructive” media campaign will be launched against him, just days before a new impeachment motion is to be voted on in Congress.
Castillo said that the media will publish messages, montages, audios and videos against him, without presenting any evidence to support the claims.
The impeachment motion will be voted in Congress on March 28, and will be the second such motion tabled against Castillo in less than eight months of government on the grounds of moral incapacity.
The first one was voted on in December, but did not obtain enough votes to be admitted for debate.
