Brazil's benchmark Bovespa index <.BVSP> showed little change, down 0.03 percent in afternoon trade, while Chile's benchmark IPSA <.IPSA> jumped 0.44 percent.

Among major regional equities markets, only Mexico's IPC <.IBC> was significantly in the red, falling 0.17 percent after government data showed a contraction in investment in November.

Argentina's small and volatile Merval index <.MERV> led gains, popping 2.65 percent, due to optimism about the end of a slide in major markets as well as an ongoing rally in local energy stocks.

"The U.S. market stopped sliding, and that helped the Merval," said one Buenos Aires-based trader. "The recovery in the short-term could last a few days."

Among currency markets, the Chilean peso was the major winner, jumping 0.87 percent after the central bank posted a January trade surplus of $1.21 billion, up 7 percent from the previous year as prices for key export copper improved.

The Mexican and Argentine peso currencies, as well as the Brazilian real , all slumped fairly modestly, thanks to a strengthening global dollar <.DXY>.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Walter Bianchi in Buenos Aires; Editing by Bernadette Baum)