Trumping all expectations

The outcome of the US elections had been expected to have a crucial bearing on the mood of the global stock exchanges. Hillary Clinton’s victory was supposed to foster reassurance and prevent a repeat of the Brexit shock that afflicted the stock exchanges in June. A Trump win, however, was expected to spark panic on the markets. The result was indeed initially greeted with falling share prices (which even plummeted in Asia), an increase in gold prices and a sell-off on emerging markets – but the bourses had already bounced back by as early as the afternoon of the same day. Election week turned out to be one of growth for the majority of the main markets. The improvement in the indexes across the Atlantic was accounted for by a strengthening of the dollar vs. the euro that had not been seen for more than ten years. How could this be explained if Trump’s election was expected to devastate the global financial markets to at least the same extent as the Brexit vote had do