Bloomberg Línea — Stronger economic data in the US reinforced the feeling of caution in stock markets and caused the main indices to close lower this Tuesday (30), on the eve of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision.
The Ibovespa (IBOV) followed the New York stock exchanges and ended the session with a drop of 1.12%, at 125,924 points. As a result, the main Brazilian stock index accumulated a loss of 1.68% in April, after a decline of 0.71% in March. In the year, the benchmark accumulates a drop of 6.16%.
The Brazilian stock exchange will be closed tomorrow during the May 1st holiday this Wednesday, when directors of the American central bank define the new level of the United States reference interest rate, which accentuated the feeling of caution regarding Brazilian assets.
O dollar (USDBRL) reacted to concerns and rose 1.46%, trading at R$5.19 at closing.
Read too: Santander Brasil returns to targeting the retail segment and wants to attract inactive customers
The movement in international markets was influenced by the release of an indicator of labor costs in the US, closely watched by the Fed, which accelerated in the first quarter more than expected, illustrating persistent wage pressures that keep inflation high.
The Employment Cost Index, which measures wages and benefits, increased 1.2%, the highest in a year, after rising 0.9% at the end of 2023, according to figures from the American statistics agency released this Tuesday. fair. The advance surpassed all projections in a survey by Bloomberg with economists.
In Brazil, the fall of the Ibovespa was mainly influenced by the shares of Petrobras (PETR3; PETR4), Vale (VALE3), Itaú Unibanco (ITUB4), B3 (B3SA3) and Multiplan (MULT3), which were among the main negative contributions. Retailers such as Magazine Luiza (MGLU3) and Casas Bahia (BHIA3) also gave in, as did Yduqs (YDUQ3), Braskem (BRKM5) and Vamos (VAMO3), which were among the biggest losses.
Only 12 Ibovespa assets registered an increase, with emphasis on Santander Brasil (SANB11), whose units rose after the Spanish bank’s branch reported its balance sheet for the first quarter.
The bank recorded a net profit of R$3 billion (an increase of 41% in 12 months) and a profitability of 14%, indicating an improvement, but still far from the level before the worsening of credit quality (20%). Since the second quarter of 2022, Santander Brasil has only reported quarterly profits below the R$3 billion mark.
“The market learned the hard way that it extended credit beyond what customers were able to absorb. Today we have a better understanding, a maturity, about the low elasticity of low income. We have a new, safer proposal to offer credit to the mass retail segment”, said CEO Mario Leão in a conference call with analysts.
– With collaboration from Sergio Ripardo and information from Bloomberg News.
