INSTANT VIEW-US purchased Argentine pesos after finance officials meet, Bessent says

Oct 9 (Reuters) - The United States purchased Argentine pesos and finalized a $20 billion currency swap framework with Argentina's central bank after a meeting between the two countries' top finance officials in Washington this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.

The market for Argentine pesos ARS= was closed when the news came out but the peso strengthened right before trading stopped at 2:00 pm ET/1800 GMT and was last quoted at 1,418 per dollar.

Argentina's markets are closed on Friday.

COMMENTS:

EDUARDO ORDONEZ BUESO, EMERGING MARKETS DEBT PORTFOLIO MANAGER, BANKINVEST

"If they hadn't come through with a promise they made … we would be talking about a complete collapse of Argentina. When they first announced it markets rallied initially. But since then people were hungry for the details. We're just waiting for all the little dotting of the I’s and crossing of the T’s to get all the final details for people to feel comfortable and calm and stop challenging the exchange rates.

"You can see less volatility every day and something more normal. The Argentinian authorities have been traveling to the U.S. the last few days, they much camped in Washington to finalize their conversations. So it's been the only driver of the of the valuations the last few days."

JIM CRAIGE, CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AND HEAD OF EMERGING MARKETS, STONE HARBOR INVESTMENT PARTNERS

"It matches pretty closely with expectations. I didn't think the US Treasury would be directly buying pesos, but the peso is responding accordingly. (Bessent) said he was going to do something and do something significant, and they really have. All very positive from a pricing standpoint."