Chile Forum

Since July 2001 our current dollar bear has bled 39.2%. This may seem extreme, but the USDX lost 52.4% in its last secular bear ending in September 1992. A similar loss in our current bear would yield a USDX level of 57.5! Ouch. This is another 22% lower from today’s all-time dollar lows! So in light of historical precedent, there is plenty of room for the USDX to continue falling even from here.

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:"There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" the one liner economic wisdom of the ages.

Buy land, they're not making it anymore

admin wrote:

Buy land, they're not making it anymore

Some economic advice from Mark Twain

Live rates at 2008.03.10 20:17:30 UTC
Chile Pesos United States Dollars
1 CLP = 0.00225204 USD 1 USD = 444.043 CLP

admin wrote:

... and $107 for a barrel of oil. Got Milk?

Chile's Peso Falls From Decade High on U.S. Growth Concern

By Andrea Jaramillo

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Chile's peso fell from a decade high on speculation the U.S. economic slowdown will reduce demand for developing nations' commodity exports.

The currency halted an 11-day advance on concern the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to lend as much as $200 billion of Treasuries in exchange for debt including private mortgage- backed securities won't stave off a recession in the world's biggest economy.

``Markets overreacted yesterday with the Fed's announcement,'' said Bertrand Delgado, a Latin America economist at IDEAglobal Inc., a New York-based research firm. ``It's good news, but that doesn't mean the crisis is over. The peso will likely begin to reach a plateau as prices of commodities such as copper start to stabilize.''

Chile's peso dropped 0.3 percent to 431.02 per dollar at 12:59 p.m. New York time, from 429.55 yesterday, when it reached 427.40 per dollar, the strongest since November 1997. The peso's 15 percent gain against the dollar this year is the biggest among 26 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

The yield on Chile's 6 percent bonds due in March 2017 was little changed at 6.51 percent, according to Bloomberg data.

The price of copper, Chile's biggest export, has advanced 25 percent this year.

Bets the Fed will cut borrowing costs further is prompting gains in the Colombian peso, according to Alvaro Camaro, chief analyst at Stanford Financial Group's unit in Bogota.

`Peso's Move'

``It's clear the Fed will continue cutting rates, and the expectation of a widening spread remains a big part of the peso's move,'' said Camaro.

Futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade indicate traders see a 70 percent chance the Fed will lower its 3 percent target lending rate by three-quarters of a percentage point at its meeting next week. The balance of bets is for a cut of a half-percentage point. The U.S. central bank has reduced the benchmark rate 2.25 percentage points since September.

Colombia's peso rose for a fourth straight day, gaining 0.8 percent to 1,848 per dollar, from 1,864 yesterday, according to the Colombian foreign-exchange electronic transactions system, known as SET-FX.

The 6.75 percent rate difference between Colombian and U.S. benchmark lending rates is the widest in six years, luring capital into Colombia's bonds and equities.

The yield on Colombia's benchmark 11 percent bond due in July 2020 rose 3 basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 11.49 percent, according to Colombia's stock exchange. The bond's price fell 0.201 centavo to 96.693 centavos.

Peru, Argentina

Peru's sol fell 0.1 percent to 2.811 per dollar, from 2.809 yesterday. The yield on the nation's 8.6 percent sol-denominated bonds due in August 2017 was little changed at 6.55 percent, according to Interbank SA.

The yield on Argentina's 5.83 percent inflation-linked peso bonds due in December 2033 fell 9 basis points to 8.94 percent, according to Citigroup Inc.'s unit in Argentina. The peso rose 0.06 percent to 3.1510 per dollar, from 3.1528 yesterday.

Venezuela's bolivar rose 5.4 percent to 4.35 per dollar in the unregulated market from 4.6 yesterday, traders said. The government pegs its currency at an official exchange rate of 2.15 per dollar under restrictions imposed in 2003. Venezuelans turn to the parallel market when they can't get approval from the government's Foreign Exchange Administration Commission to buy dollars at the official rate.