Buenos Aires, Feb. 17 (NA) -- With an eye on the treatment that the labor reform will receive in the Chamber of Deputies, Argentine stocks fell by up to 3% on the New York Stock Exchange, while sovereign bonds remained stable and generated a decrease in the country risk. The U.S. market resumed operations this Tuesday, after not operating yesterday due to Presidents' Day. The rest of the Argentine assets operating in the United States obtained losses of between 1% and 2.3%. Dollar-denominated sovereign bonds averaged gains, with AL41 (0.6%) and AL35 (1.3%) leading the gains. Only Corporación América (2.8%), Tenaris (1.8%), and Telecom (0.1%) ended the day in positive territory. Most ADRs operated with losses. Cresud, Edenor, and Central Puerto led the declines on Wall Street: 2.8%, 2.5%, and 2.4%, respectively. The rest remained with gains of between 0.1% and 0.6%. In particular, the Dow Jones closed with a gain of 0.1%, the S&P 500 remained stable with no changes, and the Nasdaq fell 0.2%. "Due to renewed concerns about technology companies - with a focus on software - Wall Street is once again leaning towards a more cautious tone, which is reflected in ADRs during the local holiday, as they have been responding to the external climate with a higher 'beta,'" stated economist Gustavo Ber. Regarding Argentine ADRs, operations closed in the red for most assets. This occurs in a context where the Central Bank (BCRA) has accumulated more than US$2,000 million in purchases to strengthen its reserves. The market's attention will be focused on the debate of the labor reform in the Chamber of Deputies; after obtaining half sanction in the Senate, the project must return to the Upper House due to the changes that the Government will introduce in the article on sick leave. This caused the country risk to retreat 1.5% this Tuesday to 511 points. As for the local market, it did not mark operations in the first two days of the week due to the Carnival holidays, resuming its activities next Wednesday, Feb. 18. According to what Noticias Argentinas learned, the main American stocks started the day with falls and, towards the end, reversed the panorama. So far this month, the indicator prepared by JP Morgan increased by 3% although it remains below in the annual measurement (-10.5%).
