The dollar operates with a sharp drop this Tuesday (2), following the cooling of the US currency abroad, while traders react to the announcement made the day before by the Central Bank of an extraordinary auction of traditional currency swaps.
What is the dollar exchange rate today?
At 9:42 am (Brasília time), the dollar in cash fell 0.25%, to R$5.047 in purchase and sale. On B3, the first-month dollar futures contract fell 0.26%, to 5,055 points.
The BC will sell US$ 1 billion in exchange rate swap contracts in this session, in an operation to be carried out between 12:30 pm and 12:40 pm, which seeks to meet a demand generated by the redemption of the NTN-A3 bond, linked to the exchange rate, scheduled for April 15th.
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This extra operation should not be confused with the daily swap auction that has been carried out by the BC to roll over June maturities this year. This Tuesday, from 11:30 am to 11:40 am, 16,000 swap contracts will be put up for sale for rollover.
Commercial dollar
- Sale: R$5,047
- Purchase: R$5,047
Tourism dollar
- Sale: R$5,270
- Purchase: R$5,090
Read more: Types of dollar: find out the main ones and the importance of this currency
Why is the dollar down today?
The North American currency is undergoing a realization movement after closing the day before at R$5.0588 on sale, an increase of 0.86%, the highest closing value since October 13th of last year.
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Also weighing on the dollar is the BC’s intervention announcement, which foresees the sale of US$ 1 billion in currency swap contracts.
According to José Faria Júnior, partner at Wagner Investimentos (WIA), NTN-A is a bond with a return linked to the dollar launched in 1997 and the series with the longest maturity expires now, on April 15th.
The NTN-A was issued to exchange external federal public debt securities for internal securities, indexed to the dollar plus interest rates, he adds.
“The holders of these securities, to hedge their position, sell dollars. However, with the redemption, they will need to exit the short position, buying dollars to undo the hedge,” he says.
The total volume of securities is R$18.5 billion, around US$3.7 billion. For this reason, according to him, the BC announced that it will hold an extraordinary currency swap auction today for 20,000 contracts, or US$1 billion.
“Some analysts believe that an auction below the total volume could bring more volatility. It is difficult to give an opinion, we do not have information on the volume of dollars that needs to be purchased to undo the hedge position”, reinforces Júnior.
According to Leonel Mattos, market intelligence analyst at StoneX, the auction has downward pressure on the US currency – since the traditional swap auction is an operation with an effect equivalent to the sale of dollars on the futures market.
Meanwhile, abroad, the index that compares the dollar to a basket of strong pairs fell slightly, losing steam after earlier touching a high in five years, giving relief to the currencies of emerging countries.
(With Reuters)
