A roundup of Monday’s stock market results from across the Americas
👑 Argentina’s Merval leads in LatAm:
The Merval (MERVAL) climbed 3.65% and Colombia’s Colcap (COLCAP) 2.21%, with mixed results across the Americas on Monday.
The Merval was boosted by the shares of YPF (YPFD), Cablevision Holding (CVH) and Transportadora Gas del Norte (TGNO4), while Colombia’s index was pushed higher by the positive performance of shares of Grupo Nutresa (NUTRESA), Mineros SA (MINEROS) and Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETL).
Argentina’s International Monetary Fund executive board on Friday approved a $5.3 billion disbursement to Argentina, according to people familiar with the matter, a key step in the government’s program that has faced setbacks amid a worsening economic outlook.
The board approved the funds after IMF staff completed the fourth review of Argentina’s $44 billion deal, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to speak publicly. The board approved the funds after IMF staff completed the fourth review of Argentina’s $44 billion deal.
In issues of the day, today it was learned that Berkshire Hataway, Warren Buffet’s flagship company, can now be purchased through the Colombian Stock Exchange (BVC). Although it is not an issue of shares of the company, which has among its investment portfolio brands such as Coca Cola, there is the possibility of buying shares of that company in Colombian pesos and without the need to open accounts abroad.
The company, which is sponsored by the stockbroker Acciones y Valores, is listed on the Colombian Global Market, which allows trading in pesos, which also lists companies such as Falabella, Banco de Chile, Apple, Amazon, among others.
Those who acquire securities in this market have the same rights as those acquired by purchasers of shares of these companies in any of the markets in which they are listed.
📉 A bad day for Brazil’s Ibovespa:
Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV) posted the sharpest losses on Monday, down 0.39%, with shares of Lojas Renner (LREN3), Hapvida Participacoes e Investimentos (HAPV3) and Grupo de Moda Soma (SOMA3) pushing the index lower.
Locally, investors weighed statements made by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad in an interview with Globo News on Monday.
Haddad said that the government needs to increase revenues to comply with the new fiscal framework, but ruled out the need to create taxes or raise rates, stoking doubts among traders about the government’s next steps.
“We have no room now for a more expansionary fiscal policy because the room we have today is the reduction of interest rates,” Haddad said. He also noted that the government is still working on the final draft of the fiscal framework and that the bill might not be sent to Congress this week.
🗽On Wall Street:
Treasuries rose Monday as a gauge of US factory activity contracted by more than expected, tempering inflation concerns fueled by OPEC+’s surprise plan to cut oil production.
Policy-sensitive two-year yields reversed course after earlier climbing as much as 11 basis points. Energy shares led gains in S&P 500, with US crude hitting $80 a barrel. The Nasdaq 100 (CCMPDL) underperformed major benchmarks as Tesla Inc. (TSLA) sank on data showing its price cuts barely boosted deliveries.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.37% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.98%
The Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of manufacturing activity decreased to 46.3 in March, below the median estimate of 47.5 in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Readings below 50 indicate contraction. Measures of new orders and employment retreated.
“The main takeaway from this report is the job market is slowing,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial. “A cooler job market should release some of the inflationary pressure the Fed is working hard to conquer.”
The government’s monthly employment report will be released Friday and will give a fuller picture of the job market. Swaps linked to Fed interest-rate expectations showed a quarter-point hike in May as more likely than not.
‘Open question’
Fed Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard told Bloomberg Television Monday that OPEC+’s decision was unexpected and an increase in oil prices could make the Fed’s job of lowering inflation more challenging. “Whether it will have a lasting impact I think is an open question,” he said.
To Paul Nolte at Murphy & Sylvest Wealth Management, the fact that the Fed has indicated it’s data dependent means two things.
“First, every data point is important. And second, they have no real long-term plan for the economy,” Nolte added. “The lack of a plan means investors are left to guess what the Fed will do based on the latest piece of economic data. This is giving rise to wild swings in the markets.”
As the possibility of a recession looks more certain, the upcoming earnings season may be the first of several difficult quarters, according to Chris Harvey, head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo & Co.
“We have been seeing for a number of quarters, margins starting to compress, and we think this is where it comes to roost,” Harvey said on Bloomberg Television. “This is the period where if you can’t make numbers, if margins get compressed, this is where you get penalized.”
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%, the euro rose 0.6% to $1.0906, the British pound rose 0.7% to $1.2421 and the Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 132.44 per dollar.
🍝 For the dinner table debate:
Often, getting an affordable price for an airline ticket seems like a pipe dream. With a bit of luck, you can find a fare with a discount, or a sudden bargain. More often that not you have to search again and again. Book, or wait? Can there really be anyone who can beat the airlines at playing on their own turf?
Google has set out to do something about it, and announced that from this April 3 it will offer a new feature. The search engine will monitor prices on a daily basis and compensate users if the offer decreases from the time the booking is made until the flight takes off.
At the moment, the feature has only been implemented for selected US flights on Alaska, Spirit and Hawaiian airlines. If the roundtrip you are requesting meets the criteria, a light blue price guarantee indicator will appear above the fare option.
“We’re confident we can offer it to as many people as possible and expand it well beyond Book on Google,” says Jade Kessler, product manager for Google Flights. While there is no formal timeline for expansion, the company’s plans are to roll out the guarantee on as many domestic and international flights as possible across as many airlines as possible.
Leidys Becerra, a content producer at Bloomberg Línea, and Rita Nazareth of Bloomberg News, contributed to this report.
