EMERGING MARKETS-Latin American FX, stocks set for weekly losses as commodities stall

* Brazil's Vale advances after Q4 results * Mexico's Femsa falls after Q4 profit drop * Stocks down 1.3%, FX eases 0.6% (Updated at 3pm ET/2000 GMT) By Shashwat Chauhan and Lisa Pauline Mattackal Feb 23 (Reuters) - Most stock indexes and currencies in Latin America dropped on Friday as declines in oil and metals prices weighed on the resource-rich region, capping a choppy week of trading that has seen it broadly lag global emerging markets. MSCI's Latin American currencies gauge was down 0.6%, its worst day in nearly three weeks, set for a weekly fall of 0.3%. A gauge of Latin American stocks dropped 1.3%, with heavyweight Brazil's main stock exchange losing 0.7% amid weakness in financial and energy shares. Oil prices dropped over 2% after the U.S. central bank indicated interest rate cuts could be further delayed, raising concerns about commodity demand. Latin American assets have see-sawed this week as investors tempered interest rate cut expectations from the U.S. Federal Reserve amid signs of economic resilience in the world's biggest economy. The region lagged broader emerging markets, which gained as China took broad steps to boost the country's property sector and economy, and as a global tech stock rally lifted Asian bourses. "With Fed expectations on the up again, it could get tricky for Latin America," said Geoff Yu, senior EMEA Market Strategist at BNY Mellon. Global emerging market stocks rose for the fifth consecutive week, up 1.2% for the week. Latin American stocks lost 0.7%. LSEG data showed emerging market equity funds attracted $269 million in the week to Feb. 21. However bond funds saw $1.1 billion worth of outflows. On Friday, Brazil's real fell 0.7% and Colombia's peso dropped 0.8%. Both currencies touched over two-week lows, while Mexico's peso lost 0.1%. Easing inflation data on Thursday and minutes from the central bank's last meeting reinforced expectations that Mexico's central bank was on track to cut interest rates soon. However, strategists at Macquarie said "there's no urgency to ease in view of the economy's strength in Q1 and the uncertainty posed by the US and Mexico elections." Declining copper prices weighed on currencies of top producers, with Chile's peso down 0.3% to 981.2 per dollar, its lowest since October 2022. Chile's LATAM Airlines lost over 5% after reporting a 95% year-on-year fall in net profit in the fourth quarter on Thursday. Mexico's benchmark index lost 0.9%, with retailer Femsa's plunging 11.5% after posting a 17.7% year-on-year fall in fourth-quarter net profit. Shares in Argentina rose 2.7% on the day, while Colombian stocks rose 0.8%. HIGHLIGHTS ** Egypt to announce new investment to boost forex, bonds up ** MercadoLibre's U.S. market cap sheds $9 bln after flat fourth quarter ** Argentina markets double down on Milei as investors 'start to believe Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2000 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1028.55 -0.09 MSCI LatAm 2537.85 -1.25 Brazil Bovespa 129820.75 -0.32 Mexico IPC 56766.18 -0.67 Chile IPSA 6240.78 0.05 Argentina MerVal 1052429.30 -2.193 Colombia COLCAP 1272.34 -0.53 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 4.9942 -0.85 Mexico peso 17.1264 -0.17 Chile peso 983.5 -0.51 Colombia peso 3948.71 -0.47 Peru sol 3.7947 -0.51 Argentina peso 838.9000 -0.06 (interbank) Argentina peso 1065 1.88 (parallel) (Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexander Smith and Diane Craft)