By Vinícius Andrade, Gabriel Diniz Tavares and Srinivasan Sivabalan | Updated on Jun 11, 2026 at 07:22 PM
Emerging-market currencies jumped and stocks erased earlier losses after President Donald Trump canceled planned attacks on Iran, fueling optimism that a deal was imminent.
An MSCI Inc. gauge for developing-nation currencies was up 0.2% as of 2:15 p.m. in New York Thursday, after earlier falling as much as 0.2%. Brazil’s real posted its biggest advance in two months, while the Colombian and Chilean pesos were also among the biggest gainers in a basket of 22 EM exchange rates tracked by Bloomberg.
In a stark reversal to recent escalation, Trump said he had canceled · planned military strikes against Iran and signaled that talks were nearing completion. A deal is “pretty much all wrapped up,” the New York Post reported, citing a phone call with Trump.
“The market senses that we are finally nearing a conclusion to this conflict, either by a deal as assumed right now or more bombing,” said Greg Lesko, a portfolio manager at Deltec Asset Management LLC focused on emerging-market stocks. “The devil will be in the details which we don’t have yet.”
The $118 billion Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF extended gains to as much as 2%, while the Asia-heavy benchmark for emerging stocks erased losses.
Developing-world assets are witnessing wilder swings this month as concerns over the sustainability of the artificial-intelligence rally are compounded by festering geopolitical risks and bets for a hawkish Federal Reserve. The largest exchange-traded fund tracking emerging-market stocks recently saw its biggest outflow since September 2024.
“A small correction in AI Tech related valuation is not a shock after the exponential rally, particularly in Korea,” said Hasnain Malik, head of EM equity and geopolitics strategy at Tellimer.
Argentina’s dollar bonds jumped across the curve after S&P Global Ratings upgraded the country’s credit score, following a similar move from Fitch Ratings last month. Notes maturing in 2035 climbed more than 2 cents to a record high.
“The second upgrade was only a matter of time in 2026 given the strong FX purchases and reform momentum,” Morgan Stanley strategist Simon Waever wrote in a note Wednesday. That “was probably the most important of the six steps we think Argentina wanted to achieve before returning to markets.”