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Market Turmoil Eases After Trump Victory Speech

Turbulence in global financial markets calmed down after an initial sell-off as investors reassess the impact Trump’s surprise presidential victory.
Image: Employees of a foreign exchange trading company work near monitors displaying U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Clinton and U.S. Republican presidential nominee Trump on TV news, and the Japanese yen's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar in To
Employees of a foreign exchange trading company work near monitors displaying U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on TV news in Tokyo on Nov. 9.TORU HANAI / Reuters
/ Source: Reuters

Turbulence in global financial markets calmed down after an initial sell-off in stocks as investors reassessed the impact of Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the U.S. presidential election.

Dow Jones futures had plummeted by over 800 points late Tuesday night, as U.S. election results showed Trump taking an early lead.

But by early morning, Dow futures had recouped most losses and were down about 1.2 percent or 220 points after the earlier fall. The broader S&P 500 futures were down by 2 percent at 2,094.

The U.S. 30-year treasury yield actually rose to their highest levels since February at 2.77 percent, up 14 basis points. And U.S. 10-year Treasury yields were also up 1.1. BPS on day at 1.873 percent, also reversing earlier falls.

After initially falling the most since the aftermath of Britain’s surprising vote to leave the European Union on June 23, European stock markets steadied a bit after Trump’s relatively soft victory speech.

Germany's DAX was down 2 percent at 10,267 while the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 1 percent lower at 6,773. The British pound sterling made some gains and pushed 0.3 percent higher against the dollar to around 1.24.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com, said Trump "definitely sounded more presidential than he has done at any stage during the election campaign" during his victory speech, in which he praised Hillary Clinton. Brooks said the speech has helped soothe stressed markets.

Investments traditionally viewed as safe havens — like gold — got a lift from the unexpected results. Gold was up 1.8 percent at $1,297 an ounce. The Japanese yen has also been heavily in demand, with the dollar down 1.9 percent at 103.17 yen.

Earlier in the day, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 briefly plunged more than 6.1 percent as investors reacted to the prospect of a Trump presidency.

By late in Tokyo's trading session, the Nikkei was down 5.2 percent, after the Kyodo News agency reported that top officials from the Bank of Japan, Finance Ministry and Financial Services Agency would meet later in the day to discuss how to respond to possible wild fluctuations in financial markets.

“The reactions are not as bad as I would’ve expected but it is still early days,” Martin van Vliet, an interest-rate strategist at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam, told Bloomberg News. “It’s certainly not as dreadful as many people had expected a few hours ago. Everyone is now wondering about the longer-term ramifications.”