Stock exchanges fall again with the advance of the omicron and interest pressure

The advance of the omicron variant of the coronavirus again worried investors on Tuesday (14), causing the second consecutive fall in the main world stock indices, already pressured by global inflation and the consequent rise in interest rates.

The Ibovespa, a reference on the Brazilian Stock Exchange, retreated 0.58%, to 106,759 points, in line with the low of the American market, where Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped 0.30%, 0.75% and 1.14% , respectively.

At the opening of the session, the Ibovespa even advanced 1.6%, to 109,147 points, even after the announcement of a fall above expectations in the services sector. The rally, however, lost support during the afternoon.

Driven by the rising curve of future interest rates in the United States, the dollar advanced 0.35%, to R$ 5.6940.

Data on the increase in producer inflation in the United States reinforced the expectation that the Fed (Federal Reserve, the American central bank) will signal the anticipation of the increase in interest rates in the country this Wednesday afternoon (15).

“The need to contain the inflationary process [nos EUA], by raising interest rates in the economy, will result in the inevitable appreciation of the dollar, penalizing, in particular, the currencies of emerging countries”, said Ricardo Gomes da Silva, superintendent of Correparti Corretora.

The market also expects the US monetary authority to signal a faster reduction in its asset purchase program.

Monetary tightening is also expected in Europe, where central banks from the eurozone and the UK will hold their meetings on Thursday (16).

The London, Paris and Frankfurt stock exchanges closed down 0.18%, 0.69% and 1.08%, in that order.

At the same time that inflation requires the removal of economic stimuli created to face the economic crisis generated by the pandemic, the progression of the omicron variant revives concerns about the resumption of restrictions to contain contamination.

Seventy-seven countries have already registered cases of the new strain of the disease, informed the World Health Organization on Tuesday. The day before, the United Kingdom announced the first death of a patient infected by the virus mutation.

In China, the movement of people was again restricted after the detection of the first case of omicron.

The International Energy Agency said omicron is likely to hamper the recovery in global demand.

In the commodities sector, oil again reflected concerns about the pandemic for the second day in a row. The barrel of Brent, a reference for this market, fell 1.45%, to US$ 73.37 (R$ 413.87).

On the Brazilian stock exchange, Petrobras preferred shares retreated 1.19%. Vale closed practically stable, yielding only 0.01%.

Three companies in the meatpacking industry pulled the list of the biggest highs of the day. Marfrig and JBS jumped 6.80% and 5.34%, in that order. BRF advanced 3.58%.

Strong exporters of animal protein, companies benefit from the rise of the dollar, which ends up offsetting the increase in costs generated by the rise in interest rates, according to Leonardo Alencar, analyst of Agro, Food and Beverages at XP Investimentos.

Alencar also highlighted that the shares of JBS and Marfrig were discounted and, according to him, recent falls do not reflect the fundamentals of the companies, which, he says, continue with positive perspectives.

On the New York Stock Exchange, Nubank shares fell 8.23%. This is the second tumble since the initial offer last week. The day before, the company had retreated 8.78%. Nubank still accumulates high of 10.22% since it went public on the stock exchange.

XP shares retreated 6.39% on Nasdaq after Itaúsa announced the sale of 1.4% of its stake in the company, raising R$1.2 billion.

with Reuters