Brazil markets strengthened on Friday for the first time this week thanks to weak US payroll data that eased fears of faster rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and also due to strong inflows from abroad. The Bovespa index of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange rose 1.56 percent to 24,747 points. Individual stocks were mixed, with bellwether Tele Norte Leste Participacoes rising 1.25 percent to 41.31 reais.
Prices jumped after data showed the US economy added only 157,000 jobs in December, less than the 175,000 forecast.
The weak jobs data spurred hopes in Brazil that interest rate hikes by the Fed may be less aggressive than feared.
But local markets pared gains after US Treasury Secretary John Snow reiterated the administration's strong dollar policy.
"What changed things was the commentary by Snow," Jorge Kattar, a derivatives trader at Rabobank in Sao Paulo, said.
Still, traders are less worried about bigger rate hikes by the Fed than they were on Tuesday, when minutes of its latest meeting signalled more aggressive monetary policy tightening.
Rate hikes in the US normally drain capital away from emerging markets like Brazil.
"With certainty, we are less worried about aggressive rate hikes in the US now," a trader at the Treviso brokerage in Sao Paulo said.
Traders said exporters heavily repatriated dollars on Friday, allowing the real to overcome pressure from spot market purchases of dollars by the central bank.
It was the fifth time this week bought dollars. The central bank in December started buying dollars to rebuild low foreign reserves to move the nation closer to investment grade status. Since December, the central bank has bought more than $2.5 billion.
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