A roundup of Wednesday’s stock market results from across the Americas
🌎 Argentina’s Merval index leads in Latin America:
Most Latin American stock exchanges followed Wall Street’s gains Wednesday, except for the Mexican stock exchange (MEXBOL), which retreated 0.34%, with shares of Controladora Axtel SAB (CTAXTELA) and América Móvil SAB (AMXB) falling 2.82% and 1.86%, respectively, trimming their gains from Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s Merval (MERVAL) led LatAm gains, rising 2.08%, with Cablevisión Holding S.A. (CVH) advancing 5.6% and Sociedad Comercial del Plata S.A. (COME)) gaining 5.3%.
“In the New York market, ADRs joined the good external climate and almost all of them ended the day positively. In the local market, Comercial del Plata stood out, after the news that the market is still assimilating of the purchase of Morixe”, wrote in a commentary Leonel Buccolo, account executive of Rava Bursátil.
Chile’s Ipsa (IPSA) rose another 1.39% and surpassed 6,000 points for the first time, setting a new record, and boosted by consumer price data in the United States.
Colombia’s Colcap (COLCAP) also performed well on Wednesday, rising 1.27%, with Promigas S.A. (PROMIG) and Bancolombia S.A. (BCOLO) making gains of 7.38% and 6.25%, respectively.
The dollar in Colombia depreciated 1.10% against the Colombian peso in the exchange market on Wednesday and was at 4,139 pesos at the close. The dollar registered today a maximum of 4,178 pesos and a minimum of 4.120, according to Bloomberg data, behavior mainly explained by the fall of the global dollar index, which was around 1%.
The S&P/BVL Peru (SPBLPGPT) gained 0.41% and Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV) advanced just 0.09%.
🗽On Wall Street:
Treasury yields fell and stocks rose as data showing a slowdown in inflation bolstered speculation the Federal Reserve is close to ending its rate hikes.
The S&P 500 finished at its highest since April 2022, while the Nasdaq 100 outperformed. Two-year yields, which are more sensitive to imminent policy moves, slid 13 basis points to 4.74%. The dollar slipped to a 15-month low. Brent crude climbed above $80 a barrel for the first time since May.
The consumer price index rose 3% in June from a year ago. The core measure — which economists view as the better indicator of underlying inflation — advanced 4.8%, the lowest since 2021 — still well above the Fed’s target.
“It’s too early to pop the champagne, but it’s not too early to start chilling the bottle,” said Ronald Temple, chief market strategist at Lazard. “Better-than-expected data increases the likelihood that a Fed rate increase on July 26 will be the last of this cycle.”
In corporate news, Meta Platforms Inc. and Nvidia Corp. led gains in megacaps. Domino’s Pizza Inc. jumped on a third-party ordering agreement with Uber Technologies Inc. Microsoft Corp. is set for a second shot at winning UK approval for its takeover of Activision Blizzard Inc., but regulators warn that any antitrust fixes would trigger a new probe.
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.9%
- The euro rose 1.2% to $1.1136
- The British pound rose 0.5% to $1.2992
- The Japanese yen rose 1.4% to 138.46 per dollar
The Nasdaq Composite (CCMPDL) gained 1.15% and the S&P 500 0.74%, to 4,472.16 points, its highest level in 15 months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.25%.
🍝 For the dinner table debate:
For months now, Elon Musk has been hinting that he wants to develop something similar to the popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, and now he has declared the creation of the company xAI, which aims to “understand the true nature of the universe.”
On its website, xAI states that its new team will be led by Musk and made up of executives who have previously collaborated with an extensive range of companies at the forefront of the AI field, such as Google’s DeepMind, Microsoft Inc (MSFT) and Tesla Inc (TSLA), as well as educational entities such as the University of Toronto.
Last March, Musk and Jared Birchall, who manages Musk’s family office, founded a company called X.AI, according to a document filed with the Nevada Secretary of State. Musk has often publicly questioned OpenAI, the up-and-coming artificial intelligence startup and creator of ChatGPT.
Paola Villar S., a content producer at Bloomberg Línea, and Rita Nazareth of Bloomberg News, contributed to this story.