MEXICO CITY, Nov. 8 (UPI) — The global markets showed signs of panic on Tuesday night as early election results revealed Donald Trump outperforming projections in a number of key battleground states, including Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.
Trading floors closed with markets up on Tuesday, a sign investors expected a Hillary Clinton victory and the accompanying financial certainty. That certainty now appears gone, with global markets falling.
In addition to falling stock prices, trading prices also appeared to be in dramatic flux late Tuesday, another sign of uncertainty.
Despite market rallies ahead of the closing polls, there were signs of trepidation. Trading volume was down slightly on the day, suggesting many investors were nervously staying pat, awaiting the results of the U.S. election.
“Don’t forget the markets priced in a ‘Remain’ win in the Brexit referendum and got it wrong,” Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group, told BBC News.
That markets appear to prefer Clinton isn’t proof the Democratic nominee’s economic policies are preferred on Wall Street or elsewhere, only that she is a known entity. Investors view Trump as untested.
“Whilst neither party could necessarily be deemed as being bad for equities, at least in the short term, a Clinton win would bring about a greater degree of certainty as to what the future holds — and this is a quality markets are always willing to applaud,” Remo Fritschi, an institutional sales manager at ADS Securities, told MarketWatch.
Meanwhile, the peso, which was trading at a two-month high on Tuesday, also began to dip in response to the positive Trump numbers.
In recent weeks, the peso has been the globe’s most volatile currency. But the Mexican peso has been rising in value in recent days. Financial analysts suggest its strengthening position is a reflection of investors’ confidence in a victory for Clinton.
