EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil stocks fall on political woes; Embraer drops
By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks fell on Tuesday as lawmakers debated whether to put President Michel Temer on trial before the Supreme Court, a potential blow to his agenda of market-friendly reforms.
Traders largely expect the center-right president to successfully dodge corruption charges, as he did with a similar string of accusations earlier this year.
Still, a smaller-than-expected show of support for Temer could indicate he will struggle to pass belt-tightening measures, such as streamlining the nation's bloated social security system.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index fell 1 percent, slipping further from an all-time high reached earlier this month.
Shares of planemaker Embraer SA were the biggest decliners, dropping the most in seven months after France's Airbus SE acquired a majority stake in Bombardier Inc's CSeries jetliner program.
Analysts at Banco BTG Pactual said the transaction is likely to boost Bombardier's CSeries operations. Bombardier is a direct competitor of Embraer.
The Brazilian real weakened 0.2 percent, tracking other Latin American currencies lower after a report that U.S. President Donald Trump was leaning towards picking hawk John Taylor as the next head of the Federal Reserve.
A faster pace of U.S. interest rate hikes could dampen the allure of high-yielding assets from emerging markets, weighing on the value of their currencies.
The Mexican peso was down 0.2 percent, while the Chilean peso slipped 0.5 percent.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1720 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 1125.49 -0.56 31.26 MSCI LatAm 2923.52 -0.94 26.09 Brazil Bovespa 76131.19 -0.99 26.41 Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 49709.58 -0.02 8.91 Chile IPSA 5468.39 -0.31 31.72 Chile IGPA 27408.64 -0.25 32.19 Argentina MerVal 26852.13 -1.06 58.72 Colombia IGBC 11032.15 -0.47 8.93 Venezuela IBC 554.92 0.82 -98.25 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.1788 -0.22 2.21 Mexico peso 19.0600 -0.16 8.84 Chile peso 622.61 -0.52 7.72 Colombia peso 2944.05 -0.44 1.95 Peru sol 3.247 -0.12 5.14 Argentina peso (interbank) 17.3850 -0.22 -8.69 Argentina peso (parallel) 17.91 -0.06 -6.09 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
