Brazil's currency, the real, firmed 0.06 percent versus the US dollar to 1.786. The currency had earlier traded as strong as 1.774 per dollar, but pared gains on concerns a US fiscal stimulus package would not be enough to forestall a recession.
President George W. Bush on Friday called for a package of tax cuts and other measures totalling up to $150 billion to help boost the US economy. "The market wasn't so optimistic with the announcement from Bush. His announcements didn't meet expectations," said Gerson da Nobrega, treasury desk manager at Banco Alfa de Investimento. Interest-rate futures fell on the BM&F commodities and futures exchange in Sao Paulo after an inflation gauge, the IGP-10 wholesale inflation index, slowed to 1.02 percent in January from 1.59 percent in December.
State-controlled oil company Petrobras, the country's most actively traded stock, rose 1.3 percent to 71.80 reais, snapping six days of losses that had brought the stock's price down by nearly 17 percent. Vale, the iron ore miner formerly known as CVRD, rose 2.6 percent to 46.87 reais, tracking gains in prices of copper, nickel and other industrial metals.
Comments
Comments are closed.