The peso loses against the dollar along with most currencies

The peso closed the session with a moderate depreciation of 0.26% or 5.2 cents, trading around 19.95 pesos per dollar, with the exchange rate touching a minimum of 19.8648 and a maximum of 19.9809 pesos.

In the foreign exchange market, the Mexican peso lost along with most of the currencies in the wide basket of main crosses, while the weighted index of the dollar advanced 0.22 percent.

The strengthening of the dollar was concentrated in the hours after it was published in the media that the Joe Biden administration will propose raising taxes on capital gains from 20 to 39.6% for high-income individuals, which rises to 43.4% for a tax of 3.8% of investment income used to finance Obamacare and could be more than 50% in states with high tax rates like California and New York.

Likewise, the capital markets of the United States had a negative reaction to the news, without a differentiated performance between indices.

The S&P 500 closed with a 0.92% loss, the Dow Jones lost 0.94% and the Nasdaq lost 0.94%, the biggest daily declines since March 23. In contrast, in Mexico the IPC of the Mexican Stock Exchange closed with a gain of 0.46 percent.

In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury bond yield rate registered a decline of 1.2 basis points, reaching 1.54%, accumulating a decline of 6.1 basis points during the last three sessions.

The decline in the rate of return in the secondary market indicates a lower appetite for risk and a higher demand for Treasury bonds.

The peso

It is important to note that during the session, positive economic indicators continued to be published for the United States, highlighting the initial requests for unemployment support last week, which amounted to 547 thousand units, below market expectations and the 586 thousand reported in the previous week, being its lowest reading since the pandemic began.

The optimism for this publication was captured by the European markets in the last hours of operation, but was overshadowed by speculation about a probable increase in capital taxes in the United States.

It is worth mentioning that during the first hours of Friday, the preliminary manufacturing and services PMIs for the month of April will be published for several European countries, which will influence the performance of financial markets at the beginning of tomorrow’s session.

At 8:45 a.m. Markit’s advance PMI for the United States will be released, which is expected to continue to show sustained expansion in the service sector and manufacturing during April.

In the session, the euro touched a low of 1.1994 and a high of 1.2069 dollars per euro.

Finally, the euro peso touched a minimum of 23.8633 and a maximum of 24.0460 pesos per euro.

At the close, the interbank quotes for sale stood at 19.9533 pesos per dollar, 1.3839 dollars per pound and 1.2015 dollars per euro.

Gabriela Siller; PhD

Director of Economic-Financial Analysis.

Banco BASE