A roundup of Thursday’s stock market results from across the region
🗽 On Wall Street:
U.S. stock markets rebounded after starting the month in the red following the release of economic data that generated expectations of a less aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 ended with an advance of 1.84%, while the Dow Jones Industrials gained 1.33% and the Nasdaq Composite (CCMPDL) climbed 2.69%.
Investors scrutinized private hiring data, which posted the smallest gain since the post-pandemic recovery began, and factory orders, which also came in lower than expected.
Business payrolls rose by 128,000 last month, lower than analysts expected, and which follows a downward trend for April’s data, Bloomberg said.
“Hopes for a less aggressive tightening campaign by the Fed improved after a wave of economic data suggested the economy is weakening,” explained Edward Moya, an analyst at Oanda.
🔑 The Day’s Key Movements:
Oil prices rose on a volatile day, amid news coming from OPEC and the European Union of production increases and a partial blockade on oil originating from Russia.
The cartel of oil-producing countries agreed to increase their supply by 50%, which should add 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, up from 432,000 barrels per day in recent months.
Countries that have not been able to increase production, such as Angola, Nigeria and more recently Russia, would be allocated a higher quota, according to sources consulted by Bloomberg.
This news counteracted the effect of the partial blockade agreed by European Union countries on Russian supplies.
The sanctions would ban the purchase of Russian oil delivered to member states by sea within six months and refined oil products within eight months. Pipeline crude will be temporarily excluded from the sanctions as a concession to Hungary.
The measures will be adopted once they are published in the official EU gazette.
🥇 Latin America’s Leader:
Latin American stock markets also rebounded, driven by the recovery in the United States, in a session in which only one of the region’s main indices posted losses.
The rebound was led by the S&P BVL/Peru, which closed with a gain of more than 1.8%.
The good performance of the financial, materials and industrial sectors accounted for the rise in the Peruvian stock market.
Stocks such as Casa Grande (CASAGRC1), Banco Bbva (BBVAC1) and Trevali (TV) were among the best performers of the day.
Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV) also posted gains after Wednesday’s timid 0.01% advance, boosted by the shares of the steel and mining sectors.
The positive performance of such shares comes amid the iron ore boom in China, with the expectation that many of the restrictions in Shanghai will be lifted and demand for the raw material will increase, as well as flows to infrastructure funds in the Asian powerhouse.
📉 A Bad Day:
The Mexican stock market was the only bourse in the region to post losses, with the S&P BMV/IPC (MEXBOL) falling by more than 1%, with the performance of the real estate, finance and communication services sectors weighing on the index’s closing result.
Grupo Financiero Inbursa (GFINBURO), Alfa SAB (ALFAA) and Grupo Bimbo (BIMBOA) shares were among those posting the sharpest losses.
The performance of Inbursa’s stock was weighed down by the fact that Bradesco BBI analyst Gustavo Schroden on Wednesday downgraded the recommendation on the financial group to “below average market performance”, Bloomberg reported.
🍝 For the Dinner Table Debate:
Closing the gender gap and eliminating barriers to women’s full participation in the labor market in Southern Cone countries would allow the GDP of those nations to increase between 4% and 15%, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
In the case of Brazil, if the barriers faced by various ethnic groups were also eliminated, the gains could account for 30% of GDP.
Despite the progress that has been made in terms of gender equality in recent decades, women continue to face barriers that limit their development. In 2019, the average female employment rate in the Southern Cone was 49%, 21 percentage points below that of men.
The report also found that in Buenos Aires, women have worse access to work than men due to higher travel costs and longer commute distances. The gap is even more pronounced for lower-income women.