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Bitcoin hit a fresh record, the US dollar rose to a four-month high and Tesla shares jumped as investors raised bets on the big winners from Donald Trump’s US presidential election victory.
The dollar was up 0.5 per cent against a basket of its peers on Monday, passing the level it hit the day after the election last week and taking it to its highest since July. The euro fell 0.6 per cent to as low as $1.0654, its lowest level since April.
Bitcoin, which has hit a series of record highs since the election, surged 7.7 per cent to trade above $82,500 for the first time, as Republicans looked increasingly likely to take control of the House of Representatives, having already won a majority in the Senate.
The Trump administration is widely expected to be supportive of the crypto industry and, with control of both chambers of Congress, would have greater power to enact favourable legislation.
Among equities, Tesla, the electric-vehicle maker run by Trump backer Elon Musk, was up 8.4 per cent at the open in New York. The company has surged past a $1tn market capitalisation since election day, helping boost Musk’s personal net wealth by about $32bn. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase rose 14.8 per cent while broker Robinhood added 8.1 per cent.
“What we are seeing is that people are keen to jump on the Trump trade sooner rather than later,” said Emmanuel Cau, head of European equity strategy at Barclays.
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The performance of crypto and other so-called “Trump trades” showed growing anticipation that the former president would take a light-touch approach to regulation during his second term, said Mabrouk Chetouane, head of global market strategy at Natixis Investment Managers.
“Investors are willing to take risks, even with more protectionism in the pipeline,” he said, referring to Trump’s plans to sharply increase tariffs on imports to the US.
The Republican candidate’s decisive victory drove traders to price in the president-elect’s promises of tax cuts and tariffs, fuelling the dollar and sparking a sell-off in US government bonds.
Trading in Treasuries, which have recovered much of their post-election losses, is closed for the Veterans Day public holiday in the US. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both rose 0.3 per cent at the open in New York.
The Financial Times reported last week that Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s trade envoy during his first-term trade war with China, had been asked to take the job again. “Any clues on Trump’s appointments may be market moving,” said Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid.
The Mexican peso, which had performed poorly in the run-up to the election and was highly volatile on election day, was down 1.3 per cent at 20.47 to the dollar.
Additional reporting by Shotaro Tani
