This Tuesday the market had started quietly and with good prospects after the announcement of the conversion of the debt into pesos that Minister Sergio Massa agreed with the banks to start the 2024 and 2025 debt maturities for 7 trillion dollars. The bonds opened higher in both pesos and dollars and the blue dollar managed to break through the $370 floor for a few hours.

But the international scene played against it. Following comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggesting that interest rates may rise more than expected, international markets fell and dragged emerging markets lower.

In this frameMerval yielded 2.57%under the impact of the Dow Jones which lost 1.7%.

In this climate, the Central Bank continued its sell-off and got rid of it 52 million dollars to meet market demand. With just five business days after March, the monetary authority has already given way so far this month 129 million dollars.

“Plant conditions are weak. So far this year, currency selling has caught up $1,216 million. Given the bad context of drought and a devaluation rate still below inflation, more differential exchange rates would seem to be the solution proposed by Economy”, said Aurum Valores.

In this context, and under the impact of the decline in bonds, the MEP dollar rose by 1.3% and closed at $366.97 while cash with liquidity advanced by 0.9%, $375.8.

With this increase in cash with liquidity, how companies use to become dollars, has come to the fore and has become in the most expensive of the alternative dollars, as it beats the blue dollar by nearly five pesos.

After hitting $369 at the open, the casual corrected and ended the day at $371, its lowest level in seven weeks. This brings the gap with the official dollar below 80% for the first time this year.

the bonds have fallen

“As for the local market, both fixed and variable income have been infected by the bearish pace of Wall Streett,” said analyst Ayelén Romero, of Rava Bursátil. “First of all, stocks being liquidated in the US market have plummeted dramatically. And dollar bonds have also been affected by the international environment.”

Argentine bonds had started with hikes of up to 3% in dollar issuance but eventually reversed course and closed with losses greater than 2%. AL30 returned 2.9% and AL35 was down 2.2%.

As for bonds denominated in pesos, they closed with slight gains, less than 1%. The best performance was that of Discount with an advance of 1.4%.

Country risk, the indicator that measures the excess cost of Argentine debt, fell by 0.1%. 2044 basis points.

The S&P Merval index closed this Tuesday with a drop of 2.57%. Among the leaders, the only stocks that finished in positive territory were Comercial del Plata (1.15%) and Central Puerto (0.15%).

On the contrary, the newspapers that lost the most were those of YPF (-6.14%), Aluar (-4.85%) and Transportadora de Gas del Sur (-3.46).

In New York, Argentine companies closed the session with most of the results in the red. Here too the worst part was taken by YPF with a loss of -7.1%. Other significant declines were those of Transportadora Gas del Sur (-5%); IRSA (-4.3%); Banco Supervielle (-4.1%); and BBVA Argentina (-3.9%).

In these numbers, Argentine ADRs amplified the negative trend that dominated Wall Street. Sociedad Comercial del Plata closed with positive numbers (2.1%); Ternium (0.4%); and Telecom Argentina (0.3%).

Following Powell’s words, the Dow Jones industrial index lost 1.72%, the Nasdaq of technology stocks 1.25% and the S&P 500 1.53%.

Powell said the Fed’s main rate, which hiked to curb inflation, could exceed the 5.1% ceiling expected by Fed members. Rates, Powell told a Senate committee, would remain high for “sometimes”.

AQ