In a day of volatility in the financial market, the dollar closed slightly higher, affected by obstacles in the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) of the Transition and by expectations regarding interest rates in the United States. The stock market alternated highs and lows throughout the session, but closed stable.
The commercial dollar ended this Thursday (15) sold at R$5.316, up R$0.015 (+0.28%). The quotation reached R$ 5.34 at the maximum of the day, around 12:30 pm. Two hours later, it dropped to R$5.28, to operate around R$5.31 for the remainder of the session.
With today’s performance, the US currency accumulates a high of 2.19% in December. In 2022, the currency drops 4.66%.
In the stock market, the day was also marked by oscillations. B3’s Ibovespa index closed at 103,768 points, down just 0.01%. The indicator dropped 0.7% in the first minutes of trading. Just before 12:00, it rose 1.6%, but lost strength throughout the afternoon.
The obstacle in the processing of the Transition PEC in the Chamber of Deputies caused instability in the market. PT parliamentarians try to vote on the text today, but part of the deputies prefers to wait for the end of the judgment, by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), of the action that questions the secret budget.
If the proposal is not voted on by next Tuesday (20), the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, should issue an extraordinary credit (outside the spending ceiling) with the amount allocated to Bolsa Família as soon as he takes office. Congress’ attempt to make the State-Owned Law more flexible also weighed on the financial market.
On the international scene, investors remain attentive to developments in yesterday’s meeting (14) of the Federal Reserve (Fed, North American Central Bank). The agency raised basic interest rates by 0.5 percentage points, but Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said it was necessary to wait for US inflation to fall permanently for interest rates to stop rising.
* with information from Reuters
