Chile Stock Market Slides to 5-Week Low as Codelco Fires Three Executive

Market Snapshot — February 13, 2026

Equities & Corporate

Friday capped a week to forget for Chilean equities. The IPSA fell 1.40% to 10,821.64 — its lowest close since January 7 — as the index failed to stabilize after Thursday’s 2.17% drubbing that had already breached the psychologically important 11,000 level. The session traded between a high of 10,974.84 and a low of 10,805.87, with the selling intensifying after the US CPI release at midday.

This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Chilean markets and Latin American financial news.

For context on regional markets, see Brazil’s Ibovespa for the same session.

Also tracking regional peers: Colombia’s COLCAP closed the same session.

For the full week, the IPSA shed 2.79% — its worst five-day decline since November — after touching 11,217.82 on Tuesday’s rebound from Monday’s Latam Airlines-driven selloff. The week’s arc tells the story: a rebound attempt was crushed by the global AI-rotation trade and persistent selling in heavyweight names. About 370 stocks rose on Wall Street on Friday, but the S&P 500’s megacap gauge fell 1.1%, showing that the AI reassessment dragging on the Nasdaq spilled over into emerging markets.

Analysts at Diario Financiero noted that despite the selloff, broker recommendations remain constructive. LarrainVial, Credicorp, and Renta4 all pointed to banking stocks (Itaú, BICE, Banco de Chile, Bci), Parque Arauco in the mall sector, and Andina in beverages as entry points at discounted valuations. The consensus view is that this correction reflects global rotation rather than deteriorating Chilean fundamentals.

The Codelco governance story dominated corporate headlines. The state miner fired VP of Operations Mauricio Barraza, former El Teniente operations chief Claudio Sougarret, and projects manager Rodrigo Andrades after an internal audit revealed that safety reports to Sernageomin had been manipulated following the July 2023 accident that killed six workers. CEO Rubén Alvarado announced a “radical reorganization” of El Teniente, including tamper-proof digital signatures for technical reports and full cooperation with prosecutors. The shake-up adds governance risk to the already-challenged state miner, which produced 1.334 million tons in 2025 — narrowly falling below BHP’s Escondida (1.345 million tons) for the first time.

Currency & Commodities

The dollar climbed $4.40 to $862.70 on Bloomberg screens, completing a weekly advance of $6.10 — its worst week for the peso in a month. The official “dólar observado” published by the Banco Central stood at $854.41 for the session. The divergence between a weakening DXY (down 9.2% year-over-year to four-year lows near 96.9) and a strengthening USD/CLP underscores the dominant role of copper in the peso’s price action: when the red metal falls, the peso weakens regardless of what the greenback does globally.

Copper futures retreated to $5.78 per pound on COMEX, sliding from the $5.90 zone earlier in the week as China wound down ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. Industrial demand slowed as factories shuttered for the extended break, though structural supply tightness and AI-related data center demand continue to support prices well above historical averages. Goldman Sachs flagged copper’s price as “above fair value” at $11,500/ton, warning that a US tariff announcement on refined copper in mid-2026 could trigger a correction to $11,000. Cochilco, however, raised its 2026 average forecast from $4.55 to $4.95 per pound, citing persistent supply deficits.

In a notable Friday call, Goldman Sachs’ chief EM FX strategist Kamakshya Trivedi told Diario Financiero that the peso’s fair long-term value is $775–$800 per dollar, with a 12-month target of $840. The bank noted the peso has already rallied 4% in 2026 despite flat copper, suggesting it was catching up to fundamentals after underperforming due to political uncertainty. A sustained copper price near $13,000/ton could push the currency even stronger than their base case.

The US CPI for January came in at 2.4% year-over-year — below the 2.5% consensus and the lowest in seven months. Core CPI held at 2.5%, also the lowest in nearly five years. Markets reinforced bets for at least two Fed rate cuts in 2026, with the next FOMC meeting on March 17–18. Despite the dovish data, the peso failed to benefit as commodity pressure dominated currency flows.

Gold rebounded above $5,040 per ounce on Friday, recovering from Wednesday’s sharp decline, as bargain hunters stepped in above the $4,900 support floor. The metal remains down roughly 10% from its all-time high above $5,550 reached in late January. The dollar’s structural weakness — DXY down 0.01% on the day but 9.2% year-over-year — continues to provide a floor for precious metals.

Technical Analysis — S&P IPSA (Daily)

The daily chart paints a picture of a bull trend under stress but not yet broken. The IPSA closed at 10,897.74 on the BCS feed (10,821.64 on BICE) — slipping below its 20-day Bollinger midline and testing the lower band near 10,856. The index has now retraced roughly 50% of the January–February rally from the 10,481 year-end level to the 11,721 all-time high.

The MACD histogram has turned negative at −100.83, with the signal line crossing bearishly — confirming the momentum deterioration that began with Monday’s Latam-driven gap down. The RSI sits at 60.54 on the slow line and 42.08 on the fast — the latter approaching oversold territory but not yet there. The 200-day moving average at 9,249 remains far below, underscoring that the structural uptrend is intact even as the medium-term correction deepens.

The Verdict