The US dollar surged and bitcoin hit a record high yesterday before former US president Donald Trump claimed victory in the US election, with traders ramping up bets on fresh tax cuts, tariffs and rising inflation.
While polls had shown the race on a knife edge, the Republican fared far better than his Democratic opponent, US Vice President Kamala Harris, as results rolled in.
Both candidates picked up expected wins in safe states, but indications that the business tycoon was on course for a second term boosted the so-called “Trump trade.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
News that the former president’s party had won control of the Senate also boosted the prospect of sweeping tax cuts, more tariffs and deregulation — seen as a boost for the greenback.
The US dollar jumped 1.5 percent to ￥154.38, its highest since July, and was also up more than 1 percent against the euro and more than 3 percent against the Mexican peso.
Bitcoin sprung US$6,000 higher to a record US$75,371.69, topping its previous peak of US$73,797.98 in March.
Trump has pledged to make the US the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world” and to put tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge of a wide-ranging audit of governmental waste.
Investors are “potentially taking the view that a Republican victory would lead to a surge in demand for the digital currency,” AJ Bell PLC analyst Russ Mould said.
Analysts said a clean sweep of Congress and the White House for Trump and Republicans would likely boost the US dollar and Treasury yields, owing to his plans to cut taxes and impose tariffs on imports.
“The markets are scrambling to figure out what happens next, but for the time being, the market is pricing in a higher growth and higher inflation outlook,” Esho Capital economist and founder Peter Esho said.
“Trade and tariffs and taxation would be the three Ts of the Trump Trade, followed by deregulation,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto trading group.
However, he added: “Bear in mind as a caveat that the House is still up for grabs and Trump had complete control of Congress last time and it didn’t mean he could do everything he said he would.”
Such an outcome could provide a headache for US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as he continues his battle to bring inflation to heel, with Trump’s plans considered inflationary.
The election comes as the central bank prepares to deliver its latest policy decision Thursday amid expectations it would cut interest rates by 25 basis points, having lowered them by 50 points in September.
The US dollar’s surge against the yen rallied stocks more than 3 percent in Tokyo at one point thanks to gains in exporters, while markets in Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai and Bangkok also rose.
However, there were losses in Shanghai, Seoul, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta.
Hong Kong was also well down — at one point diving almost 3 percent — on worries about the impact of a Trump presidency on China’s economy and relations between Beijing and Washington.
London, Paris and Frankfurt all rose at the open.
US stock futures rose sharply hours before the opening of markets yesterday.
Futures — essentially bets on what the price of a stock would be at a later date — were up 2.2 percent for the Dow, 2 percent for the broad-based S&P 500 and 1.7 percent for the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
RSS