|
More rate fears for bolsas
|
 |
August 6, 1999: 5:35 p.m. ET
U.S. economic numbers increase worries throughout Americas of interest rate rise
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Markets in Mexico and Brazil took a sharp downturn Friday as U.S. economic numbers showed strong job creation and wage growth.
The Labor Department reported that the economy created 310,000 jobs outside the farm sector with hourly wages growing 0.5 percent.
In Mexico, the IPC index fell 121.13 points, or 2.35 percent, to 5,029.66.
Investors, already wary over rising interest rates, saw the latest batch of numbers as yet another sign of the inevitable.
"Here we have more data that is announcing that the U.S. Federal Reserve will have to do something to cool its economy ... and that is increasing rates," one trader said.
In Brazil, investors spent the day tracking the Dow. The Bovespa index fell 156 points, or 1.53 percent, to 10,039.
Brazil's currency, the real, firmed up at the end of trading, however, ending 0.16 percent higher at 1.846 per dollar.
In Argentina shares were mostly flat, ending just down. Traders said the recent hammering of the market kept it from following the steeper declines in Brazil and Mexico.
"The battering we've had has left us pretty low. I think maybe we found a plateau if not a floor," said Daniel Costantino, a trader with Banco Privado.
The MerVal index dipped 0.89 points, or 0.19 percent, to 464.89.
In Venezuela, the IBC index rose 0.9 percent to 4,650.98, while in Peru the IGRA index climbed 0.41 percent to 1,636.42.
In Chile the IGPA index dropped 0.04 percent to 4,734.27.
Toronto flat
In Toronto, stocks were flat as investors appeared to have already factored in their rate fears.
The TSE 300 Composite index fell 27.75 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,878.80.
"All the buyers sort of stepped away from the market. They were in there, then the numbers came out and they pulled their bids," said one trader in Toronto. "Once the initial frenzy was over they started to step back into the game and that's what brought the TSE back a little bit.
"The numbers were important, but they may have not had as much an impact as originally thought."
-- from staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
