Economy

The local currency hit its weakest-ever mark of 6.3139 to the dollar before closing down 2.9% at 6.2896. It was its largest daily decline since November 2022. The currency earlier closed for trading locally at 6.26, down 2.7%.Further weighing on the real late in the session, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday and signalled it will slow the pace at which borrowing costs fall, strengthening the dollar across the board.The benchmark Bovespa stock index closed at a six-month low, down 3.15% in its largest daily percentage drop since November 2022.The cost of insuring exposure to the country’s bond debt was at a 14-month high, with investors anxious as Latin America’s largest economy faces a deepening financial market crisis.Investors have been doubtful whether lawmakers will be able to pass the main part of a fiscal bill aimed at putting government finances on a more sustainable footing.”Markets are mainly worried about the overall fragile fiscal trajectory and the fact that it is affecting inflation expectations via the pressure on the real,” said Thomas Haugaard, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson in Copenhagen.”Often we have to see the market revolting before painful adjustments come, but for now it does not look like there will be a fiscal response to the recent turmoil.”Congress late on Tuesday approved the main text of a bill but has yet to vote on some amendments proposed by lawmakers, while Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said Wednesday the Senate is ready to vote on the bill as soon as Congress sends it.”We are doing our part: sending (Congress) the measures, working to make sure they are not watered down, and convincing people these measures are needed to strengthen the fiscal framework,” Haddad said.Brazil’s central bank held spot U.S. dollar auctions for the third consecutive session on Tuesday and reaffirmed its tough monetary policy stance.”The central bank hiked more than expected and have been intervening in the currency so they are doing their part,” said Shamaila Khan, head of fixed income for emerging markets and Asia Pacific at UBS Asset Management.The local sovereign bond benchmark yield closed at 14.77% on Wednesday, having on Tuesday hit 14.847%, the highest since March 2016. The yield started the year around 10.5%.”At this point the bar is very, very low for a positive fiscal surprise,” said Arif Joshi, co-head of the emerging markets debt platform at Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Asset Management.He said fiscal consolidation must move beyond bets that stronger growth will make the fiscal side look healthier and into actual spending cuts.”It always starts with baby steps and it builds from there,” Joshi said. “We’re not looking for the full bazooka, we’re looking for baby steps in the right direction.”Five-year credit default swaps, the cost to insure against a sovereign default, stood at 194 basis points according to S&P Global Market Intelligence -the most expensive since October 2023. The dollar-denominated MSCI Brazil index has fallen more than 30% since the start of the year.Brazil’s nominal budget deficit, including interest payments on public debt, has climbed to 9.5% of GDP from 4.6% when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023. More

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Thursday cut its base interest rate charged via the overnight discount window by 25 basis points to 4.75%, tracking a move by the U.S. Federal Reserve.Hong Kong’s monetary policy moves in lock-step with the United States as the city’s currency is pegged to the greenback in a tight range of 7.75-7.85 per dollar. More

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Apple on Wednesday hit out at Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), saying its numerous requests to access the iPhone maker’s software tools for its devices could impact users’ privacy and security, underscoring the intense rivalry between the two tech giants.Under the European Union’s landmark Digital Markets Act that took effect last year, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) must allow rivals and app developers to inter-operate with its own services or risk a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover.Meta has made 15 interoperability requests thus far, more than any other company, for potentially far-reaching access to Apple’s technology stack, the latter said in a report.”In many cases, Meta is seeking to alter functionality in a way that raises concerns about the privacy and security of users, and that appears to be completely unrelated to the actual use of Meta external devices, such as Meta smart glasses and Meta Quests,” Apple said.Meta Quest is Meta’s virtual reality headset, part of the company’s ambition to own the computational platform that powers virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) devices.”If Apple were to have to grant all of these requests, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could enable Meta to read on a user’s device all of their messages and emails, see every phone call they make or receive, track every app that they use, scan all of their photos, look at their files and calendar events, log all of their passwords, and more,” Apple said.It pointed to Meta’s privacy fines in Europe in recent years as a cause of concern.Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Separately, the European Commission – which in September said it would spell out how Apple must open up to rivals – published its preliminary findings on the issue late Wednesday evening, giving individuals, companies and organisations until Jan. 9 to provide feedback on its proposed measures for Apple.The measures would require Apple to provide a clear description of the different phases, deadlines and the criteria and considerations that it would apply or consider in assessing interoperability requests from apps developers.Apple should also provide developers regular updates and give and receive feedback regarding the effectiveness of its proposed interoperability solution while there would be a fair and impartial conciliation mechanism to address technical disagreement with Apple.The Commission also set out the steps for Apple to provide interoperability with all functionalities of the iOS notifications feature available to Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro and any future Apple connected physical devices to its rivals as well.A decision by the EU executive, which acts as the competition watchdog in the 27-country bloc, on whether Apple complies with the DMA’s interoperability provision is expected in March next year. More

TOKYO (Reuters) -Bank of Japan policymakers will debate whether conditions are falling in place to raise interest rates at their final meeting this year, a decision complicated by slowing global growth and uncertainty over U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s policies.Sources have told Reuters the BOJ is leaning toward keeping interest rates steady at the two-day meeting concluding on Thursday, as policymakers prefer to spend more time scrutinising overseas risks and next year’s wage outlook.The final decision will depend on the conviction each board member holds on the likelihood of Japan achieving sustained, wage-driven inflation accompanied by solid domestic demand.The BOJ’s meeting concludes hours after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates but signalled a more cautious path of easing next year, sending U.S. stocks sharply lower.A majority of economists polled by Reuters earlier this month expect the BOJ to keep interest rates steady at 0.25% on Thursday. Markets are currently pricing in less than a 20% probability of a rate increase in December..If the BOJ does keep policy steady, the market’s focus will turn to BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda’s press conference expected at 3:30 p.m. JST (0630 GMT).”The more Ueda tries to explain the reasoning behind standing pat, the more he would sound dovish and could lead to receding expectations of a near-term rate hike,” said Naoya Hasegawa, chief bond strategist at Okasan Securities.”He might deliver hawkish comments on the future rate-hike path and Japan’s neutral rate of interest to avoid rolling back expectations of a January or March rate hike too much.”Many market players see a declining yen as among the key incentives for the BOJ to hike rates or offer hawkish communication, as the currency’s weakness pushes up inflation via higher import costs.The BOJ will also release its findings on what worked and did not of the various unconventional monetary easing tools used in its 25-year battle with deflation, in another symbolic step towards ending its massive stimulus.The BOJ ended negative interest rates in March and raised its short-term policy target to 0.25% in July. It has signalled a readiness to hike again if wages and prices move as projected.There is growing conviction within the BOJ that conditions for another hike are falling into place with the economy growing moderately, wages rising steadily and inflation exceeding its 2% target for well over two years, sources have told Reuters.A closely-watched quarterly survey released on Dec. 13 showed companies remain upbeat on business conditions and expect inflation to stay above the BOJ’s 2% target in coming years.But BOJ policymakers appear to be in no rush to pull the trigger, with the yen’s rebound from three-decade lows hit in July moderating inflationary pressure from raw material imports.If the BOJ holds off hiking rates on Thursday, markets will be on the look-out for clues on whether it would act in January or wait until a subsequent meeting in March.In a media interview last month, Ueda said the BOJ must scrutinise whether wage growth will sustain momentum and warned of big uncertainty over threats of higher tariffs by Trump.Waiting until the Jan. 23-24 meeting would allow the BOJ to study a report by its branch managers due on Jan. 9 that will include information on whether small firms in regional areas of Japan would keep hiking wages in 2025. More

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