The first intervention by the Central Bank (BC) in the exchange rate in almost 16 months had little effect on the price of the dollar. The US currency fell at the beginning of the day, but gained strength during the afternoon and closed stable. The stock market partially recovered from the fall of recent weeks and closed higher, contrary to the external market.
The commercial dollar closed this Tuesday (2) sold at R$5.058, with a drop of just 0.02%. The price fell to R$5.03 around 11 am, after the BC auctioned US$1 billion in exchange rate swaps (sale of dollars on the futures market). The currency, however, accelerated again in the afternoon, reaching R$5.06 at around 2:45 pm, before closing at stability.
In just the first two days of April, the US currency rose 0.86%. In 2024, the currency will appreciate by 4.22%.
In the stock market, the day was calmer. After falling on Monday (1st), B3’s Ibovespa index closed at 127,548 points, up 0.44%. The indicator was driven by shares of oil and mining companies, which benefited from the appreciation of commodities (primary goods with international prices).
This Tuesday, the BC sold US$1 billion in foreign exchange swaps, in the first intervention by the monetary authority in the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The last time the agency had acted on the exchange rate was on December 27, 2022, when it sold dollars with a commitment to repurchase the currency months later to meet the demand for the North American currency typical at the end of the quarter.
This Tuesday’s auction aimed to guarantee the demand for dollars to cover the US$3.5 billion expiry of an exchange bond issued by the National Treasury in 1997. The paper will expire on the 15th. for the US currency to rise this month.
However, the dollar has not been rising just because of internal factors. Recent data on warming in the United States has made investors postpone until July the expectation that the Federal Reserve (Fed, Central Bank of the United States) will begin to cut basic interest rates in the largest economy on the planet. This Tuesday, it was announced that orders for industries in the United States increased 1.4% in February, above expectations.
High interest rates in advanced economies encourage capital flight from emerging countries, such as Brazil. Investors prefer to invest their money in US Treasury bonds, considered the safest investments in the world, putting pressure on the dollar in other countries.
*With information from Reuters
