The Republican Party’s Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States after beating Democrat Party candidate Hillary Clinton to the post.
Trump was victorious after achieving more than the required 270 electoral votes to secure office, gaining 276 against Clinton’s 218.Among the states he took were Wisconsin and Pennsylvania where he became the first Republican candidate to win since 1984 and 1988, respectively.
The Republicans also secured majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Market reaction to the news was initially negative with falls across global equity markets and S&P 500 futures down 5%. The Japanese Nikkei also shed 5%.
Bond yields also reacted in risk-off fashion: US 10-year yields fell by 14bps to 1.71%; German bunds by 9bps to 0.09%, Japan by 2bps to -0.09% and UK by 6bps to 1.17%.
Elsewhere, the dollar plummeted on the news dropping value against the euro, sterling and yen, while the Mexican peso also sold off heavily.
Investors also embarked on a flight to quality, with assets such the Japanese yen and gold climbing.
However, markets were buoyed a little after Trump’s victory speech in which he pledged to be “a president for all of Americans” to “rebuild our infrastructure” and “put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it”.
The dollar strengthened on the announcement, clawing back all its losses against the pound, while Trump’s words helped contain the FTSE 100’s fall to around 1% after its earlier 2% drop in the aftermath of the victory announcement.
