* New Argentina president warns of fiscal shock * Chilean peso, Peruvian sol lead currency declines * Stocks in Chile fall more than 1% * Latin American stocks down 0.6%, currencies drop 0.3% (Updated at 2:45pm ET/1945 GMT) By Siddarth S and Lisa Pauline Mattackal Dec 11 (Reuters) – Most stocks and currencies in Latin America slipped on Monday as investors looked ahead to key U.S. data and meetings of the Federal Reserve and other regional central banks for the last interest rate policy cues of the year. The broader MSCI’s gauge for Latin American currencies fell 0.3% against a firmer dollar, while MSCI’s Latin American stocks index dipped 0.6%. The U.S. dollar rose as investors scaled back bets of early interest rate cuts ahead of the release of U.S. inflation data on Tuesday and the Federal Reserve’s policy decision on Wednesday. The central banks of Mexico , Brazil and Peru also hold policy meetings later in the week. “We’ll get policy updates from the BCB, Banxico, and the BCRP, but there may be little room for surprise,” said Juan Manuel Herrera, senior economist at Scotiabank. Investors will watch the central bank meetings closely, particularly from the Federal Reserve, for more clues on the path forward for interest rates, particularly as many Latin American economies have begun cutting borrowing costs to stimulate economic growth. Emerging market hard-currency government debt spreads over U.S. Treasuries on the JP Morgan Emerging Market Bond Indices(EMBI) Global Diversified Index fell to 394 basis points, its tightest since April 2022. Elsewhere, Argentina’s stocks and currency in the official market fell after the country’s new president, Javier Milei, warned in his maiden speech that a sharp, painful fiscal shock was necessary to fix the country’s worst economic crisis in decades. The peso fell to 365.9 against the dollar in the official market, while it traded at 980 to the dollar in the parallel black market. Argentina’s benchmark S&P Merval stock index rose 3.4%. “Markets have been very positive on Milei’s plan and they’re expecting a lot of fiscal tightening,” said Rachel Ziemba, the founder of Ziemba Insights, adding that she thought markets were still waiting to see which of his campaign promises would be met as well as the sequencing of fiscal cuts. Leading declines in Latin American currencies, the Chilean peso and Peruvian sol dropped 1.2% and 1%, respectively, tracking lower copper prices and a stronger dollar. Chile and Peru are the world’s two largest copper producers. Equity losses in the region were also led by a 1.4% drop in Chile’s benchmark stock index. Mexican stocks edged up 0.1%, but the peso fell 0.3% ahead of the central bank monetary policy meeting on Thursday, while Brazil’s real was about flat on the day. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2000 GMT: Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 973.56 -0.15 MSCI LatAm 2465.71 -0.55 Brazil Bovespa 126815.31 -0.22 Mexico IPC 54453.76 0.11 Chile IPSA 5886.34 -1.41 Argentina MerVal 973609.82 3.374 Colombia COLCAP 1143.83 -0.13 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 4.9336 -0.01 Mexico peso 17.3988 -0.30 Chile peso 881.6 -1.18 Colombia peso 3973.12 0.27 Peru sol 3.7626 -0.95 Argentina peso 365.9500 -0.51 (interbank) Argentina peso 980 1.02 (parallel) (Reporting by Siddarth S and Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao and Nick Zieminski)
