The dollar started the week with little change against the real this Monday (20). Stability pauses a recent rally, in line with the US currency’s cooling abroad.
There were fears that tighter monetary policies would maintain some caution in the markets.
At 9:09 am Brasília time, the spot dollar advanced 0.14%, at R$ 5.1530 on sale.
On B3, at 9:09 am, the dollar futures contract with the first maturity fell 0.04% to R$5.1720.
In the last session, on Friday (17), the US currency jumped 2.35%, to R$ 5.1460, the maximum for closing since last May 9 (R$ 5.1554)
In this session, the Central Bank will auction up to 15 thousand traditional foreign exchange swap contracts for the purpose of rolling over the maturity date of August 1, 2022.
Investors start the week attentive to new reactions coming from Brasília to the fuel readjustment applied by Petrobras. On Friday (17), criticism from politicians to the company caused a sharp drop in the company’s shares, while the domestic market was still trying to adjust to the historic high of interest rates in the United States.
The common (PETR3) and preferred (PETR4) papers of the oil company controlled by the federal government closed the trading session with losses of 7.25% and 6.09%, respectively.
PETR3 fell to its lowest this year, R$29.92, below the floor of R$30.57 recorded on January 6th.
After the increase was announced, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said that Petrobras “could plunge Brazil into chaos”. The president of the Chamber, deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL), stated that he “will go to the wall” to “review everything in prices” and that he will work to tax the oil company’s profit.
Last Friday alone, the state-owned company lost R$27.3 billion in market value, according to financial data platform Economatica.
“Petrobras lost R$ 30 billion. I believe that, on Monday (18), with the CPI, it will lose another 30 billion”, said Bolsonaro during an evangelical service in Manaus (AM). The threat of a CPI was also made by the president last Friday, after the announcement of the readjustment.
The negative performance of Petrobras shares contributed to the Ibovespa falling 2.90%, to 99,824 points, on Friday. This is the lowest score for a close of the Exchange’s benchmark index since early November 2020, the last time the indicator had dropped below 100,000 points.
In this week, the Ibovespa plunged 5.36%, registering the biggest weekly loss since the 7.28% drop in October last year.
Investors are increasingly weighing the risks that the proximity of the elections will potentiate measures that could compromise the functioning of the market, increase inflationary pressure and generate more public spending.
The crisis involving one of the main companies on the Brazilian stock exchange occurs at a time of increasing concerns about the direction of the world economy.
Managers discuss the possibility of a global recession after, last Wednesday (15), the Fed (Federal Reserve, the American central bank) confirmed a 0.75 percentage point increase in its interest rate. It is the biggest increase applied by the monetary authority of the United States since 1994.
The increase applied on Thursday by the Fed raised the benchmark rate for daily lending between banks (a benchmark for the credit sector in general) to a range between 1.5% and 1.75% per year.
Next Wednesday (22), Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will address a Senate hearing, an opportunity for the market to assess the monetary authority’s next steps after the historic rate hike.
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