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Pantallas bursátiles en rojo tras la reelección de Lula en Brasil
Los derivados del real y las acciones brasileñas cayeron tras la victoria de Lula en la segunda vuelta. · Imagen generada por EPM

Lula wins the runoff and Brazilian assets slide ahead of Monday's open

Lula was reelected in Brazil with 51.68% of the vote against 48.32% for Flávio Bolsonaro, and derivatives on the real and Brazilian stocks plunged on Sunday…

--- The context --- Brazil closed a presidential runoff this Sunday, October 25, pitting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. The result meant continuity for the Workers' Party (PT) leader or a change of political direction. Stock exchanges in Brazil and the United States remained closed on Sunday, so the initial reaction could only appear in instruments that trade outside regular local market hours. Since the first round, Brazilian assets had rallied on expectations of political change, and that bet was exposed once the count confirmed the incumbent's continuity. --- The facts --- With 93.03% of the votes counted, Lula held 51.68% of the ballots, against 48.32% for Bolsonaro, a difference of more than 3.9 million votes, and the results projection declared the president the winner. The reelection allows the leader, who first reached the Presidency in 2003 and returned to power in 2023, to continue leading the country for a new presidential term. Brazilian real futures maturing in November, traded on CME Group, were down 9.12%, at 18.1450 U.S. cents per real, equivalent to approximately BRL$5.51 per dollar. Those contracts trade the currency's value early, outside local hours: they are a first exchange-rate reference, not the official dollar quote in Brazil. In Japan, a fund listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange that seeks to replicate the Ibovespa plunged 12.72%, to 285.4 yen. Perpetual contracts linked to a New York-listed fund that replicates Brazilian stocks fell 10.68% over the last 24 hours, to US$40,456, with volume of approximately US$21.28 million on a decentralized platform that operates around the clock. Those contracts have no expiration date, and their fall is not an official move in the traditional fund. --- The positions --- The market had bet on Bolsonaro. Since the first round, the Ibovespa gained almost 7%, the real appreciated more than 4% against the dollar and the New York fund advanced more than 11%, driven by expectations of political change that did not materialize. A survey of 73 investors showed that 79.5% anticipated a fall of more than 5% in the Ibovespa if Lula was reelected, while 62.5% expected a depreciation of the real of more than 5%. An economic analysis firm estimated that a Lula victory could depreciate the real by 11%, against an additional 2.7% appreciation if Bolsonaro won. --- What remains unknown --- The main reaction has not happened yet: attention shifts to Monday's opening, when the Ibovespa, the currency market and sovereign bonds reflect the result and it becomes clear whether Sunday's losses hold or moderate. --- Unanswered questions --- Will the falls hold when the Ibovespa and the currency market open this Monday? How far can the real depreciate if the 11% scenario estimated by the analysis firm materializes? How will sovereign bonds respond in their first session after the runoff? --- EPM analysis --- Sunday's plunge does not yet measure the full market: it measures the size of the bet that went wrong. The scale of the falls, close to what the investor survey anticipated for this scenario, suggests an unwinding of positions accumulated since the first round rather than a new reading of the country. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, Sunday's fall is the price of a collective wrong bet: markets financed with their earlier rally the expectation of a change that the ballot box did not deliver. The decisive figure is not the 9.12% drop in real futures, but Monday's opening, when real trading volume confirms whether this was a passing jolt or a lasting repricing of Brazilian risk under the new term Lula now opens with markets positioned against him after the vote.
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