Trump victory speech helps soothe market concerns

“People realized that it is not the end of the world”. Dow futures were down 4 percent at one point. India’s Sensex climbed 1.6 percent to 27,690.21. It was at 105.74 yen after dropping to near 101 yen the day before.

On the currency front, the USA dollar is trading at 106.65 yen compared to the 105.67 yen it fetched at the close of NY trading on Wednesday.

Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States Wednesday after securing 279 electoral college votes.

By the time Trump was confirmed the victor and made his speech, financial markets had steadied.

Japan’s Nikkei index fell almost 400 points, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped more than 800 points as election results were being tallied, leading the decline in the the US markets.

Hong Kong gained 1.9 percent and Shanghai closed 1.4 percent up. “For example, S&P 500 dropped 5% whereas we would’ve estimated 8% to 9%”, said Zitzewitz. Many Wall Street watchers had anticipated a rocky turn for the market in the event of a victory by Trump, who had been seen as more of a wild card for stocks.

Canada’s economy is based largely on foreign trade, with America being its biggest trading partner. The euro was at $1.1142, up from its previous close of $1.1020.

An image of President-elect Donald Trump appears on a television screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange today. A separate report from Oxford Economics estimated Trump’s plans would lead to a recession by the end of 2017 and cause the USA economy to contract by 2% in 2018.

In general, global investors were shifting money out of stocks and into safe havens.

On the currency markets, the pound climbed 0.8% against the USA dollar at 1.248 and 1.6% against the euro at 1.140. Hanmi Pharmaceutical rose 12 percent while Hanall Biopharma jumped 21 percent in Seoul.

Hertz plunged 22.5 percent after its earnings came up far short of what analysts were looking for.

Banks and other financial companies led USA stocks mostly higher Thursday, propelling the Dow Jones industrial average to a record high. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index has dipped by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index are up by 0.4 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

The push back into higher-yielding, or riskier, investments also saw safe-haven gold tumble 1.4 percent, buying $1,286.70 – having spiked Wednesday at nearly $1,340. Financials soared 4.1%, led by banks and capital markets.

Gold was trading up 2.2%, above $1,300 an ounce. Raytheon added 7.5 percent. The Nasdaq composite increased 18 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,185.

Connor Campbell, market analyst at SpreadEx, says in an email on Thursday morning: “Just as Trump’s victory is akin to a super-sized Brexit, the markets seem to have worked through the kind of fluctuations they saw following June’s referendum in record time, compressing the sharp fall to all-time high-nearing rebound into around 24 hours”. Auto rental company Hertz plunged 42 percent after its earnings came up far short of what analysts were looking for.

While those retreats are sizeable, they pale in comparison with the losses registered earlier, particularly in USA markets.

Throughout the summer and into the fall, US markets were relatively quiet as investors became confident that Clinton would win.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones ended the day up by 1.4% at 18,589.69.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 6 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,124.