EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil stocks rebound with eye on global trade tensions
(Updates prices, adds news from Argentina and Colombia) SAO PAULO, July 12 (Reuters) - Brazil's benchmark Bovespa index jumped nearly 2 percent on Thursday, bouncing back from a dip on Wednesday, as Latin America's largest equities market continued to seesaw on global trade tensions.
Latin American equities and currencies have proven sensitive to the ongoing U.S.-China trade dispute, along with U.S. President Donald Trump's stance toward other global powers. Local traders have tracked global markets, selling as tension mounts and buying back in as the rhetoric cools.
On Wednesday, Brazil's Bovespa fell 0.62 percent as the United States announced tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports.
Brazilian traders were heartened on Thursday, however, as Trump struck a more conciliatory tone with NATO allies after launching a public attack on German policy earlier in the week, according to Filipe Villegas, an equities analyst at Sao Paulo-based brokerage Genial Investimentos.
Major currencies across the region were generally trading stronger against the dollar, recouping Wednesday losses, when traders fled emerging market currencies amid trade fears.
Mexico's peso, which climbed 0.74 percent against the dollar, aided by U.S. data for June which showed inflation barely rising, possibly reducing the urgency for U.S. interest rate hikes.
In Argentina, estimates of the country's drought-hit corn crop may be cut further from the 32 million tonnes currently expected to be harvested this season, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange and the country's main farmers group said on Thursday.
A reduced Argentine crop would squeeze global supplies of the feed grain to levels not seen in at least four years.
In Colombia, trade, industry and banking associations called for tax cuts, lower labor costs and pension reform on Thursday in a series of proposals to President-elect Ivan Duque to help bolster the sluggish economy.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2051 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily pct YTD pct change change MSCI Emerging Markets 1,070.24 0.52 -7.61 MSCI LatAm 2,568.00 0.81 -9.2 Brazil Bovespa 75,856.22 1.96 -0.71 Mexico IPC 48,696.30 -0.67 -1.33 Chile IPSA 5,283.82 -0.26 -5.05 Chile IGPA 26,765.01 -0.21 -4.35 Argentina MerVal 26,760.77 -1.73 -10.99 Colombia IGBC 12,244.54 -0.54 7.69 Venezuela IBC 105,368.62 13.84 8,241.80 Currencies Latest Daily pct YTD pct change change Brazil real 3.8820 0.02 -14.65 Mexico peso 18.9500 0.74 3.95 Chile peso 648.55 0.63 -5.23 Colombia peso 2874.8 0.70 3.73 Peru sol 3.272 0.21 -1.07 Argentina peso 27.2000 0.74 -31.62 (interbank) Argentina peso 28.4 0.11 -32.29 (parallel) (Reporting by Gram Slattery and Paula Arend Laier; Editing by Tom Brown)
