Key Points
- The gap between the official and blue dollar remains unusually tight, signaling contained near-term stress.
- A near-complete Treasury rollover came at high rates, supporting the peso short-term while pressuring equities.
- Charts show short-term weakness in FX and stocks, but not a clear longer-term break.
Argentina’s peso opened Friday under a familiar tension: authorities trying to keep the exchange rate orderly while markets weigh the next confidence test.
By early morning, the official Banco Nación rate was 1,420 pesos per dollar to buy and 1,470 to sell, while the blue market traded near 1,490/1,510. Financial dollars stayed higher but relatively stable, with MEP around 1,474 and CCL near 1,520.
That leaves a blue-official spread of roughly 3%, small by Argentina standards and consistent with a market that is uneasy but not panicked. Thursday’s price action underscored that balance.
The official dollar held at 1,470 at Banco Nación, and the wholesale reference hovered around the mid-1,440s. Parallel rates eased slightly, with the blue near 1,505, MEP around 1,473.83, and CCL near 1,513.
Liquidity conditions remained tight, a mix that tends to reward disciplined policy execution and punish anything that looks like a return to discretionary, state-heavy improvisation.
A major driver was policy math. The Treasury rolled over about 98% of a large peso maturity, but only by validating higher short-term rates. That kept pesos scarce, supporting the currency in the short run while weighing on risk assets.
One widely repeated market talking point was that the authorities tolerated extra weakness in the wholesale dollar because it is used to settle a dollar-linked instrument due January 16.
Global conditions mattered too. A firm dollar index after strong US data reinforced demand for dollars across emerging markets, even as the geopolitical mood looked calmer.
Technicals tell a similar story. On the 4-hour view, USD/ARS looks stretched, with very low RSI readings that often precede a bounce, while the daily picture points to softer momentum rather than disorder.
For equities, the S&P Merval closed near 2,926,727 on Thursday (down about 0.8%), with the week reading as a correction inside a still-up longer trend. Top movers reflected the split mood.
Winners: Metrogas (+7.8%), Banco de Valores (+4.4%), Transportadora de Gas del Norte (+3.8%), Telecom Argentina (+1.9% in New York), and Grupo Financiero Galicia (+0.4% in New York).
Losers: Cresud (-2.8%), Central Puerto (-2.8%), Pampa Energía (-2.6%), Transportadora de Gas del Sur (-2.5%), and YPF (about -1.6% locally, roughly -2.5% in New York).
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