NEW YORK, Nov. 9 (UPI) — Global markets were volatile throughout the evening of Election Day, with the price of gold increasing and other markets falling.
Wall Street and other markets predicted a win by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and factored it into price into expectations. With Tuesday evening’s vote counts and the possibility of Donald Trump‘s victory, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 5.4 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 3.2 percent.
When trading opened in Europe on Wednesday, London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent, Paris and Frankfort exchanges were down about 1.2 percent and the Milan and Madrid markets were about 2 percent lower, the BBC reported Wednesday.
Gold, typically regarded as a safe haven for investors’ money, was up 3.1 percent, or $40 per ounce, to $1314.
Futures trading in the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 3.4 percent or about 638 points, during vote-counting Tuesday evening. If it stays at that level when trading begins Wednesday morning it would surpass the 610-point fall on June 24, when United Kingdom voters voted to leave the European Union.
The markets reacted Tuesday evening to the uncertainty that came with the potential of a Trump victory; Trump won the election in a surprise upset, and his Republican Party also cemented control of both houses of Congress; a sweep of this nature offers the GOP considerable flexibility in establishing policy, including financial policy.
Clinton was regarded more favorably by Wall Street than Trump, whose unpredictable comments and adverse views on free trade worry many investors.
