(Reuters) -The U.S. Treasury purchased Argentine pesos within the “Blue Chip Swap” and spot markets on Thursday and it continues to watch all markets, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned on Friday.
“Treasury is monitoring all markets, and we’ve the capability to behave with flexibility and with pressure to stabilize Argentina,” he mentioned in a submit on X.
It was the primary announcement of participation within the “blue” market, after Bessent beforehand spoke of shopping for pesos within the open market.
Each the “blue” peso and the official one weakened on Friday, with the official forex down 2.8% at 1,441 per greenback and the blue inching down 0.3% to 1,450. Peso one-month nondeliverable forwards priced the forex at 1,446, after rising as excessive as 1,541 earlier this month. Three-month forwards see the peso slightly below 1,700, in keeping with LSEG knowledge.
Treasury has not disclosed how a lot it has spent buying pesos or whether or not it should do it on a schedule.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington, Maiya Keidan in Toronto and Rodrigo Campos in New York; Modifying by Doina Chiacu and Matthew Lewis)
