Argentina: Crisis Deepens Without IMF Agreement

The WSJ Daily Shot has a great summary of recent events in Argentina: Argentina is in trouble. The peso (ARS) gave up 7% on Monday as markets await further news from the IMF.

The central bank continues its attempts to intervene, but the situation appears hopeless even with short-term rates at 40%.Argentina needs some $30bn in standby funds, perhaps more.Source: IIF

Credit investors are not taking chances, pushing Credit Default Swaps (CDS) spreads higher on Monday. (The price of a credit default swap is referred to as its “spread,” and is denominated in basis points (bp), or one-hundredths of a percentage point. For example, a Citigroup CDS might have a spread of 255.5 bp, or 2.555%. That means that, to insure $100 of Citigroup debt, you have to pay $2.555 per year).

And we have Contageon! Several other EM currencies are still struggling. Here Argentina’s neighbor’s currencies: The Brazilian real (BRL)

The Uruguayan peso (UYU):