Brazil Stocks Rise, Currency Weakens After U.S. Fed Minutes
SAO PAULO--Brazilian stocks rose on Wednesday, while the currency weakened against the dollar, as investors digested the minutes from the latest U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting.</br></br>The minutes showed Fed officials divided about the timing of a reduction in bond buying, with half of the Fed officials believing the central bank should end the stimulus program by the end of this year. That disappointed traders hoping for a clearer timetable, and sent the dollar lower against its rivals.</br></br>In Brazil, the central bank had intervened before the release of the minutes to contain some of the earlier depreciation of the Brazilian currency versus the dollar. The central bank sold the equivalent of $1.48 billion in foreign-exchange swap contracts for two different dates, Dec. 2, 2013 and Jan. 2, 2014.</br></br>Typically, such auctions help support the real against the U.S. dollar by offering investors the opportunity to exchange bonds linked to domestic interest rates for paper indexed directly to the dollar.</br></br>The real exited active trading at BRL2.2685 per dollar, according to Tullett Prebon via Factset. The currency had traded as weak as BRL2.2787 before the auction was called.