By Rodrigo Campos
New York (Reuters) – Latin American stocks and obligations could be improbable winners, because the Trump administration’s business war has so far spared the region, while triggering a market rout to Wall Street who has sent investors looking for non -American assets.
The Nasdaq stock market index opened its doors on Friday at more than 20% below its December record and “Fear Gauge” by Wall Street reached an eight -month summit. The dollar hit a hollow of six months this week.
Meanwhile, the outperformance of certain corners of the emerging markets and currencies, and the resilience of obligations, did not go unnoticed.
Latin America was mainly spared the taxation of additional prices in the announcement of US President Donald Trump this week which has turned upside down from decades of commercial policy, in part because most of the region has a trade deficit with the greatest economy in the world.
Despite a massive Friday sale, the MSCI Latam shares gauge defeated the S&P 500 of more than 20 percentage points so far in 2025.
According to Kathryn Exum, the co-chief of Latin American assets, recent yields and the rensation of world trade could bring new types of investors to Latin American assets.
“By taking a step back, we are obviously in a new paradigm for trade and a reorganization of world trade. Assuming that you end up with more regionalized trade blocks, Latin America would be a winner in this regard,” she said.
“Maybe it starts to increase flows,” she added. “Whether flow or direct foreign investment) or portfolio flow will depend on the country at hand, and that we are talking in the short term or in the medium term.”
Evidence of a change can be found in Brazil and Mexico, the biggest economies in the region. The stock markets of the two countries have increased this year and their currencies are faced with the dollar.
Economists have said Brazil is better placed than most countries to deal with prices, while Mexico’s favorite treatment from an American commercial point of view should continue.
An evolution towards Latam follows months of volatility to Wall Street as a market in force of American assets, because the only destination was under examination, and investors have achieved growth expectations in the United States and worldwide.
“Market assets are generally emerging out of survey during this period of volatility, and we attribute this to a mixture of improvement of fundamentals, favorable technical factors and attractive relative assessments,” said Shamaila Khan, responsible for fixed income for emerging markets and Asia-Pacific at UBS.
