By Kevin Buckland
TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar rallied broadly on Wednesday and bitcoin jumped to an all-time high as investors returned to so-called “Trump trades” with initial results trickling in for an extremely close U.S. presidential election.
In the key battleground state of Georgia, Republican Donald Trump is so far leading Democrat Kamala Harris with more than half the ballots counted, according to Edison Research.
However, with vote counting still in an early stage nationally, it could be hours or even days before a final outcome is known.
The dollar index – which measures the currency against six major peers including the euro and yen – climbed 1.42% to 104.84 as of 0311 GMT.
Trump’s tariff and immigration policies are seen as inflationary by analysts, buoying the dollar.
Bitcoin climbed as much as 8.54% to reach a record $75,060. Trump is seen as more actively supportive of cryptocurrencies than Harris.
“The market seems to be reacting to the strong showing by Trump so far in Georgia but until results start rolling in from the more urban suburbs it remains too close to call,” said James Kniveton, a senior corporate forex dealer at Convera.
“The U.S. dollar has regained a lot of ground lost recently,” he said. “Risk currencies such as the AUD that appreciated ahead of a tightening race are having a pullback as Trump racks up some early wins.”
The Aussie slid 1.4% to $0.65445.
The euro dropped 1.54% to $1.0760, while the dollar added 1.64% to 154.035 yen.
While counting is still in an early stage, the results are so far broadly as anticipated, with the contest expected to come down to seven swing states.
The U.S. currency jumped 2.9% to 20.6767 Mexican pesos. It rose 0.93% to 7.1644 yuan in offshore trading. Mexico and China are among countries that stand to be hardest hit by Trump tariffs.
