The short week before Easter was not positive for Argentine assets, caught between a global climate of prudence and pessimism and the high uncertainty posed by the local scenario. This Thursday, with no operations in the local market for the Christian holiday of Holy Week, stocks and bonds fared poorly on Wall Street. Debt securities fell by more than 2% and country risk rose again to 2,461 points.
In New York the papers of Argentine companies ended up with mixed results. On the increases side, the ADR of Telecom closes with a gain of 4.7%. At the other extreme, YPF’s ADR fell 2.8% and led the declines. The state-owned oil company wiped out a large portion of its profits this year after an unfavorable ruling questioned its expropriation.
“The main ADRs ended up being mixed and selective, mainly accompanying the ‘wait and watch’ of the north, where the growing signs of economic slowdown have re-launched more defensive strategies in the face of uncertainty,” said economist Gustavo Ber .
“Growing signs of economic weakness have Wall Street traders worried, hence the more cautious tone in recent rounds, as it raises the risk of a recession even as it forces the Fed to take a softer (“dovish” stance ), he added.
As the international markets will not be working for Good Friday this Friday, today’s session was the last one this week. Argentine bonds started April on the downside for the most part. The market will be watching how investors digest the new announcements of a special dollar for agriculture from Monday, against a backdrop of reserve outflows.
According to Ber, the agricultural dollar “will not create foreign currency but at least it would make it possible to anticipate the liquidation and thus provide temporary relief to the negative dynamics of the reserves which have accumulated to critical levels”. The economist warns: “The effect of these initiatives – as has already happened in the past – would once again be transitory, above all considering that the related monetary issue could end up putting pressure even more to inflation in the coming quarters”
Source: Clarin
