EMERGING MARKETS-LatAm assets little changed in cautious trade

* Trading slows as Bovespa on holiday, investors cautious

* Argentina debt swap could open in January - source

* Brazil to create 1.3 mln jobs by year's end - Lula

By Walter Brandimarte

NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Latin American assets were
little changed on Friday on investor concern about the
sustainability of the recent rally.

Trading also slowed down as a holiday in Brazil's financial
center closed the stock and commodity exchanges in Sao Paulo.

The MSCI stock index for Latin America .MILA00000PUS
edged 0.2 percent higher after two consecutive days of losses
which left the index just slightly below a 15-month high.

Most regional currencies edged lower on persistent fears of
government intervention to curb the recent rally.

"A degree of uncertainty seems to have settled over global
financial markets, driving range trading to become the norm
across asset classes," RBC Capital Markets analysts wrote in a
research note.

"The strength of the rally we witnessed this year has
driven some to question the fundamental support of current
valuations," they added.

Regional stock gains were supported by a positive
performance in Chile, where the blue-chip IPSA stock index
.IPSA rose 0.77 percent.

But Mexico's benchmark IPC index .MXX lost 0.45 percent
as investors became more averse to risk, especially after
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said it was
too early to say the financial crisis was over.

Trichet also warned that banks risked becoming addicted to
cheap money from emergency government stimulus programs and
must be prepared for its withdrawal, reinforcing market
concerns about the early removal of expansionary policies.

The Mexican peso MXN= weakened for the same reasons. It
was trading 0.14 percent weaker in the afternoon at 13.086 per
U.S. dollar.

Currencies in Chile CLP=CL, Colombia COP=STFX and Peru
PEN=PE also slipped between 0.1 and 0.17 percent.

The Brazilian real BRBY closed little changed at 1.733
per dollar with very thin trading outside Sao Paulo.

In a more optimistic forecast for the Brazilian labor
market, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the economy
will add 1.3 million formal jobs by the end of 2009.

A few days earlier, the country's Labor Minister had
estimated 1.0 million to 1.1 million jobs would be created. For
more see [ID:nN20234590].

Meanwhile, a source said Argentina could launch a
long-awaited debt swap for holdouts as early as January after
filing an offer prospectus with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission and with European regulators in Luxembourg.
[ID:nLK296598]
(Editing by James Dalgleish)