Despite Trump’s surprising popularity, it seems that the stock markets favor a Clinton victory in Tuesday’s exhilarating U.S. presidential election. With mere hours to go before the polling stations open the final Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton with a 90 percent chance of victory, and the markets are already cheering. The dollar steadied during Tuesday’s Asian session, holding on to Monday’s gains after the investigation into Clinton’s personal emails was dropped by the FBI. The dollar traded at 104.44 yen, off the one-month lows set last Thursday. The dollar also held steady against the euro, trading at $1.1040.
The dollar fell overnight against the peso, the currency gauge for the upcoming election, due to Trump’s firm stance against Mexican immigrants to the United States. The dollar traded at 18.57 in Tuesday’s Asian session.
Chinese Data Leads to Doubt
Data out of China on Tuesday showed that the country’s exports fell 7.3 percent in October, up from September’s 10 percent drop, but still sending signals that the country’s economy is stagnant and that the economic recovery may not be as swift as originally expected. Chinese imports also fell 1.4 percent in October, a slight improvement over September’s 1.9 percent drop. Analysts are concerned that October’s improvements were caused by the weakening yuan and that there may still be additional challenges for the Chinese economy as the dollar strengthens. The yuan eased slightly on Tuesday after the central bank confirmed a weaker midpoint to reflect global dollar strength.