THE dollar (USDBLR) in sight closed slightly down against the real this Thursday, its fourth consecutive low, having hovered around stability for most of the trading session, marked by the announcement of an increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) From U.S above expected.
The spot dollar closed down 0.13%, at 5.074 reais on sale. The index fell 0.42% (5.0593) at the lowest price of the day and advanced 0.79% (5.1210) at the high.
The US economy expanded at an annualized rate of 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022, the Commerce Department said in its first estimate on Thursday, compared with a forecast by economists polled by Reuters of 2.6%.
“The main vector for GDP growth came from the increase in inventories, thanks to the normalization of supply chains in the world, but this should not last in the medium term given the still pressured demand”, the chief economist at Reag Investimentos told Reuters , Simone Pasianotto. “In other words, the US is growing, dispelling fears of recession, but still not for good reason,” she added.
The data was also highly anticipated because it comes just a few days after the Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) monetary policy decision, in which the market widely expects a further reduction in the pace of interest rate hikes, with an increase of 0.25 percentage points in the rate.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday also released lower-than-market jobless claims data on Thursday.
“I believe that nothing changes in the Fed’s view for now,” said Pasianotto, after the release of the indicators.
On Friday, the agenda brings the US PCE inflation data, the Fed’s preferred price index for its monetary policy analysis.
The dollar advanced about 0.30% against a basket of strong currencies, albeit far from the session highs, and had a mixed performance against some of the main pairs of the real.
Financial agents have been mentioning in recent days the entry of foreign funds into Brazil as a factor to boost the real.
The movement occurs as expectations grow of an end to the cycle of monetary tightening in the US, which tends to increase the attractiveness of the real due to the interest rate differential between the two countries, and in view of the reopening of China, which favors flow to emerging in general.
The Correparti brokerage team said in a comment to clients that once again a strong inflow of resources favored the real, especially in the afternoon, on a day of high prices for commodities abroad.
In the local economic agenda, public debt and current account data were released, while the political news remained lukewarm with regard to the agendas that call the most attention from financial agents.
Source: Moneytimes
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