Brazil's Real Takes a Breather
RIO DE JANEIRO--Brazil's real ended a four-session win streak against the dollar Thursday, weakening sharply at the end of the session in a movement that left traders scratching their heads.</br></br>The real exited active trading at BRL2.1923 to the dollar, according to Tullett Prebon via FactSet, compared with BRL2.1823 per U.S. dollar shortly after the open and BRL2.1876 at Wednesday's close.</br></br>Market participants said they were unaware of any news that might explain the currency's breach of the BRL2.19 threshold in the final half-hour of active trading.</br></br>"This looks like capital flows, but it's hard to know for sure," said Reginaldo Siaca, foreign-exchange manager at Sao Paulo's Advanced brokerage.</br></br>Though the real has lost some 7% of its value against the dollar over the past month--a function of expectations for less monetary stimulus in the U.S. that could reduce liquidity in global markets--Mr. Siaca said the outlook is for the currency to make up some lost ground in coming weeks.