On a day of tensions in the domestic and international markets, the dollar closed practically stable after the Central Bank (BC) intervened twice in the exchange rate. The stock market operated in decline for almost the entire session, amid adjustments, but had the best month of the year in August.
The commercial dollar closed this Friday (30) at R$5.633, up just 0.17%. The price, however, experienced strong volatility throughout the day. Around 9:40 am, right after the BC’s first intervention, it fell to R$5.58. It rose 20 minutes later to R$5.69, slowed down around 12:30 pm, after the BC’s second intervention, spent almost the entire afternoon around R$5.65, and hovered around stability near the end of trading.
Intervention
On Friday, the Central Bank sold US$1.5 billion in cash from international reserves early in the morning. It was the first intervention of its kind since April 2022, shortly after the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine. In the afternoon, the monetary authority auctioned US$765 million in new traditional foreign exchange swap contracts, an operation that works like selling dollars on the futures market.
The Central Bank justified its actions by saying it needed to combat dysfunctions in the foreign exchange market on the last business day of the four-month period. Traditionally, investors wait until the end of each month to adjust their portfolios, influencing the Ptax rate (average price throughout the day), which defines the conversion of public debt into dollars and international reserves into reais.
Despite rising 2.86% during the week, the dollar ended August with a slight drop of 0.34%. In a month marked by strong volatility, the US currency reached R$5.74 on the 5th, amid fears of a recession in the United States, which would lead to a decline in global economic activity. The price fell in the following weeks, reaching R$5.41 on the 19th, before rising in the final ten days of August.
On the stock market, the stock exchange had a day of adjustments. The Ibovespa index, from B3, closed at 136,004 points, with a decline of just 0.03%. The indicator had its second consecutive day of decline, after breaking a historic record on Wednesday (28) and closing above 137 thousand points for the first time.
Even with the turbulence in the financial market, the stock market recorded a rise of 6.54% in the year, with the best monthly performance since November 2023. The main factor for the recovery was the expectation of a drop in interest rates in the United States starting in September.
Both internal and external factors influenced the market this Friday. On the international scene, the announcement that inflation in the United States was 0.2% in July was received with mixed reactions. Although the number was the same as the previous month and was within expectations, the increase in consumer spending is complicating the Federal Reserve’s plans to cut interest rates in September.
In the domestic scenario, the disclosure that Union, states, municipalities and state-owned companies had a primary deficit of R$21.348 billion was poorly received. The result was worse than expected at R$6 billion, but the deficit was inflated by local governments, which increased spending before the restrictions imposed by the municipal elections.
* With information from Reuters
