The prospect of interest rate hikes in the United States once again affected the global financial market this Friday (19). The dollar even surpassed R$ 5.20, but fell near the end of the session and closed practically stable. The stock exchange had the biggest drop in 40 days and returned to 111 thousand points.
The B3 Ibovespa index closed at 111,496 points, down 2.04%. Almost all stocks fell, especially airlines, car rental companies and real estate developers. This was the first drop after five consecutive highs, which caused the indicator to retreat 1.13% in the week.
The foreign exchange market had a volatile day. The commercial dollar ended this Friday sold at R$5.168, down 0.08%. The price reached R$ 5.22 in the early afternoon, but slowed down and started to fall towards the end of negotiations because of resources brought in by exporters.
The US currency is up 1.86% on the week. Despite today’s high, the currency accumulates a drop of 0.08% in August and 7.27% in 2022.
Once again, the international market continued to reflect the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting (Fed, US Central Bank). In the document, released last Wednesday (17), Fed officials said that the agency will keep US interest rates high for a long time to contain inflation, which is at the highest level in 41 years.
Higher rates in advanced economies encourage the flight of resources from emerging countries such as Brazil. Although, at first, investors interpreted that US interest rates would be raised by 0.5 percentage point at the next Fed meeting, part of the market believes that there will be a further 0.75 point increase.
The slowdown in the Chinese economy, affected by the lockdowns to contain the covid-19 pandemic and the crisis in the real estate sector, also affected emerging countries. This is because the Asian country is a major consumer of commodities (primary goods with international quotations), whose prices have fallen in recent days.
*With information from Reuters
