A roundup of Fridays stock market results across the region
🗽 On Wall Street:
U.S. stock markets saw a day of gains on Friday, after closing the worst quarterly performance since 2020 on Thursday. Beyond the effects of the war in Ukraine, economic data in the U.S. influenced market performance.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, a better performance than analysts expected, while the participation rate increased as women return to the labor market, as noted by Edward Moya, an analyst at Oanda.
The S&P 500 closed up 0.34%, while the Dow Jones Industrials also rallied, gaining 0.40%, and the Nasdaq Composite (CCMPDL) rose 0.29%.
“Wages posted the biggest gain since May 2020 and that will help the consumer fight rising inflation. The U.S. economy has recovered most of the jobs lost during the pandemic and now the focus remains on how bad inflation will be, but for now the Fed can go ahead with aggressive tightening,” Moya added.
Meanwhile, Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors, told Bloomberg that “the final vestiges of Covid-19 are about to be completely eradicated from U.S. economic data,” as the unemployment rate is only slightly above the pre-pandemic level and the number of temporarily unemployed people has returned to where it was before March 2020.
🔑 The Day’s Key Events:
Oil prices closed with their sharpest weekly drop in more than 10 years, after the U.S. government began making use of strategic reserves to control the effect that the war between Russia and Ukraine is having on the markets.
West Texas Intermediate fell 1% on Friday and surpassed a $14 pullback this week, the most since 2011. Adding to the move by Joe Biden’s administration was also the decision by members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) to make another round of releases from their emergency fuel stockpiles.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to exert significant pressures on global oil markets,” the IEA said in a statement. “This comes against a backdrop of commercial inventories at their lowest level since 2014 and limited capacity of oil producers to provide additional supply in the near term.”
The agency is expected to deliver more details next week, but President Joe Biden has already said he expects allies in the IEA to agree to release an additional 30-50 million barrels from their own stockpiles.
🥇 The Leader:
All Latin American stock markets closed with gains on Friday, with Argentina’s Merval (MERVAL) out in front with an increase of 1.57%, closing three consecutive sessions with gains, fueled by the rise of Transportadora Gas del Norte, YPF (YPFD) and Banco Macro (BMA) shares.
The S&P BMV/IPC (MEXBOL) rose 0.13%, thanks to the performance of the communication services, real estate and industrial sectors, while Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV) closed up 1.31%, reaching its highest level since August 2021.
Among the most outstanding stocks on the Brazilian stock market were those of retailers and those linked to technology, driven by the decline of the U.S. dollar against the real.
🍝 For the Dinner Table Debate:
The groups for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup have been defined. The event will not only be a meeting of the teams with the highest market value, but also of the most powerful economies in the world, even though the value of their GDP is not always reflected on the field of play.
A total of 32 countries will participate, and five are already assured of traveling from Latin America: Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay, and Mexico.
Two more countries from the region could be added if Peru and Costa Rica win their matches in the playoffs to be played in Doha in June.
If one is looking for a favorite, the market value of each of the teams could give an indication of who will be the strongest performers in Qatar. England ($1.11 billion), France ($1.08 billion) and Brazil ($942 million) are the three highest-valued teams, according to Transfermarkt.
Major economies such as the United States, Japan and Germany also managed to qualify for the World Cup, even though they are not in the top five of the teams with the highest market value.
