The peso recovered ground against the dollar, after this Thursday the Bank of Mexico reduced the interest rate by a quarter of a point, half of the cut made last week by the US central bank.

At the close of the session in the interbank (wholesale) market, the Mexican currency registered an appreciation of 0.09 percent, equivalent to 1.75 cents, to conclude at 19.6225 pesos per spot dollar. The above, after the previous depreciation of 1.57 percent, which took the Mexican currency to 19.64 per dollar.

In the midst of solid economic growth in the United States and the push for raw materials, after the authorities in China will intensify their efforts to reactivate the economy, the exchange rate oscillated yesterday between a maximum of 19.7540 units and a minimum of 19.5400 , according to data from the Bank of Mexico.

The Mexican monetary authority fulfilled the script that most analysts expected: a cut in the cost of credit of 0.25 percentage points and emphasized that on this occasion it was not going to copy the Federal Reserve (Fed), which surprised last week with a decrease in its rate by 0.5 percentage points, as expected by a minority of specialists.

Before the markets opened, the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that the economy definitively expanded 3 percent during the second quarter of 2024, easing, for the moment, fears of an economic recession of the Mexico’s main trading partner.

The update primarily reflected upward adjustments to private inventory investment and federal government spending, which were offset by downward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment and exports, the report said.

Meanwhile, initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States fell again last week, this time by 4,000, to stand at 218,000. While durable goods orders did not rise in August, those in the control group did by 0.5 percent monthly, versus the expected 0.1 percent.

Metals rise and benefit mining companies

In addition, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Politburo called for fiscally stimulating the economy to achieve growth goals, for which they plan to inject one trillion yuan into their state banks in order to increase support, as long as expected an increase in banks’ core gold reserves, which boosted demand for the metals.

Gold reached $2,700 per troy ounce, while copper rose to $4.6480 per pound, a gain of 3.53 percent.

The historical levels of gold and copper prices mainly supported the shares of mining companies, so hand in hand with these and the highs on Wall Street, the Mexican Stock Exchange gained 0.75 percent, equivalent to 399.59 points, to 53 thousand 590.52 units.

Fresnillo’s share price rose 21.69 percent, while Grupo México’s shares rose 4.23 and Peñoles’ shares rose 4.23 percent, making them among the stations that gained the most in Thursday’s session. The Price and Quote Index of the BMV reached 54 thousand points during the morning session, but the decreases in the shares of Walmart of 1.78 percent and of Oma, 2.14 percent, counteracted the optimism.

The three main US indices rose to their highest levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.62 percent, up to 42,175.11 points; The Nasdaq, with a large technological presence, rose 0.58 percent, to 18,187.12 units. The S&P 500 advanced 0.40 percent to 5,745.37 points and is on track for its best performance during the first three quarters of the year since 1997.

Stumble in the oil market

Declines return to the oil market on the prospect of Saudi Arabia abandoning its unofficial price target of $100 and preparing to increase production. The barrel of Brent drops to 71.6 dollars, with a drop of 2.53 percent; compared to the $67.67 price of West Texas crude oil, with a decrease of 2.9 percent.