EMERGING MARKETS-Latam FX, stocks gain as US trade deal, jobs data boost sentiment

By Ragini Mathur and Purvi Agarwal

July 3 (Reuters) - Most Latin American currencies gained on Thursday, while stocks were mixed after a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data and after the country signed a trade deal with Vietnam, fueling hopes of more such deals.

U.S. job growth was solid in June while the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell, suggesting the labor market remained stable and potentially allowed the Fed to delay resuming its rate cutting cycle until September.

"I don't think that the market could take away something too hawkish from this but also it's difficult to price substantially more cuts that are enough to drive more dollar weakness on monetary policy expectations," said Gilberto Hernandez-Gomez, LatAm local market strategist and Vice-President at BBVA.

Investors were also relieved by some progress on the trade front as U.S. President Donald Trump clinched a deal with Vietnam on Wednesday, imposing a 20% tariff on exports to the U.S., lower than the threatened 46%.

The dollar index =USD though trading higher on the day, was around multi-year lows. Some concerns lingered around Trump's tax-cut bill that could add over $3 trillion to the country's fiscal debt.

Most currencies in Latin America strengthened against the greenback, Mexico's currency MXN= rose 0.7%, outperforming peers.

Mexico exports a significant amount of goods to the U.S., making it vulnerable to Trump's tariffs. However, an upcoming negotiation of the existing free trade agreement between Mexico, Canada and the U.S. is expected to help it.

"They're negotiating very specific key measures of the USCMA agreement and the idea is that it will bring the average tariff on goods from Mexico a decent bit lower than the initial sort of stated tariff figure," said Hernandez-Gomez.

The Brazilian real BRL= climbed 0.2%, while Colombia's peso COP= gained 0.1%.

The Chilean peso CLP= was up 0.1% in choppy trading, inline with peers.

Minutes of the last meeting of Chile's central bank revealed that it had considered a 25 basis point cut, despite an unchanged macroeconomic scenario. It ultimately held rates in June.

MSCI's index for Latin American currencies .MILA00000CUS advanced 0.5%, at its highest levels since 2009.

Meanwhile, the stocks gauge .MILA00000PUS jumped 0.8%, trading around levels last seen in May 2024.

Regional equities in Colombia .COLCAP were little changed, while those in Argentina .MERV soared 1.1%. Mexico's stock index .MXX was down 0.3%.

Heavyweight Brazilian shares .BVSP gained 1.3%, boosted by a 2% gain in utility giant Eletrobras ELET6.SA.

Separately, U.S. also lifted restrictions on exports to China for chip design software developers and ethane producers, further de-escalating tensions between the two largest economies.

Elsewhere in emerging markets, South African private sector activity held steady in June, but business confidence slipped to its lowest level in nearly four years.

The country's currency ZAR= slipped for the fifth consecutive session.

Highlights:

** Poland's July rate cut not the start of a cycle, central bank chief says

** Sri Lanka's economic outlook positive but global trade concerns pose risks, IMF says

Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at xx GMT: