Argentina’s Peso Holds Its Line As Debt Payment Calms Nerves, Then Wall Street Shakes The Dollar

Key Points

• The official and blue dollar spread stayed near 1%, a sign of calmer short-term expectations.
• Friday’s $4.2 billion debt payment supported bonds, eased risk pricing, and steadied equities.
• Overnight, a Fed-independence shock hit the dollar and lifted gold, resetting Monday’s mood.

Argentina began Monday with the peso still trading around 1,464.5 per dollar on widely watched screens, close to where it ended the prior session.

The official Banco Nación rate sat near 1,440 buy and 1,490 sell, while the blue market hovered around 1,485 buy and 1,505 sell.

With that, the blue premium remained roughly 1% on the sell side. Financial dollars told a slightly different story: MEP near 1,490–1,492 and CCL around 1,527–1,552. The gap is small in cash, wider in “exit” channels.

Friday’s anchor was confidence, not hype. The government completed roughly $4.2 billion in sovereign payments tied to Bonares and Globales. Bonds rebounded, and the S&P Merval ended up about 0.5% near 3,089,461.

One strategist said coupon cash appeared to flow back into bonds rather than out of the country. Another described investors choosing to “mantenerse posicionados” in a calmer tape.

The central bank also stayed active. It bought about $43 million on Friday and ended the week with roughly $218 million in net purchases, while gross reserves closed near $44.396 billion. That mix helped keep the street rate contained.

Overnight, the external backdrop turned messy. News of a criminal probe involving Fed Chair Jerome Powell rattled the dollar.

The DXY slid to about 99.0 and gold hit record territory above $4,600. A senior bank strategist called it “open warfare… not a good look for the U.S. dollar.”

Technically, USD/ARS looks like consolidation. The 4-hour chart shows cooling momentum and mid-50s RSI, while the daily remains firmer near the high-50s. Equities show the same rhythm: neutral on 4-hour, constructive on daily, holding the 3.0 million line.

Friday’s top ADR winners: Edenor +3.11% (39.6k); Central Puerto +2.60% (336.5k); BBVA Argentina +1.61% (482.1k); YPF +0.83% (1.20m); Loma Negra +0.81% (157.5k).

Top ADR losers: TGS -1.49% (164.6k); IRSA -0.85% (127.4k); Telecom -0.79% (128.0k); Supervielle -0.33% (845.5k); MercadoLibre -0.06% (309.3k).

ARGT, the main Argentina equity ETF, last traded around $94.47 on about 190k shares, with net assets near $778 million—recent flows mixed rather than a stampede.

Related coverage: Brazil’s Morning Call | U.S. Hits ISIS Targets Across Syria After Deadly Palmyra Att This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Argentina affairs and Latin American financial news.