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In a stunning reversal from his 2020 election defeat, Donald Trump has won the 2024 US presidential race, sending shockwaves through global financial markets.
The former president's unexpected victory saw the US dollar post its biggest single-day gain in 8 years, while US stocks and cryptocurrencies also rallied sharply.
The S&P 500 index surged to a new all-time high on the news, with the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average also reaching record levels. Investors cheered Trump's return, betting that his pro-business policies - including tax cuts and deregulation - would provide a boost to corporate earnings.
"The markets have clearly placed their bets on Trump's reelection," said Ahmet Kaya, principal economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. "There's a sense that his agenda of tax cuts and protectionism will be positive for certain sectors, at least in the short term."
The crypto market also reacted euphorically to Trump's win, with Bitcoin soaring to an all-time high above $75,000. The surge was driven in part by the president-elect's stated intention to make the US a "Bitcoin superpower" and his pledge to install Elon Musk as the head of a new government efficiency audit.
Musk, a long-time Trump ally and vocal cryptocurrency proponent, has hailed the former president's embrace of digital assets as a "game-changer" for the industry. Many crypto investors are now betting that a second Trump term will usher in a more favorable regulatory environment, with the potential departure of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler.
"This is a pivotal moment for the crypto sector," said Jeff John Roberts, crypto editor at Fortune. "Trump's victory all but guarantees a shift away from the SEC's tough stance on digital assets, which has frustrated many industry players."
However, not all market participants are celebrating the Trump win. The UK's Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has warned that the president-elect's protectionist trade policies could have "significant consequences" for the global economy.
"The US also benefits from that access to free and open trade with us and other countries around the world, and it's what makes us richer as societies," Reeves said. "We will be making strong representations to President Trump about the need to maintain those ties."
Similarly, analysts at Moody's Analytics have cautioned that Trump's isolationist approach could slow economic growth in the UK to just 0.4% in 2025, down from a previous forecast of 1.2%.
