SINGAPORE- The dollar rose broadly on Monday and cryptocurrencies jumped as trades for a victory by Donald Trump in the upcoming US elections gathered steam in the wake of an attempted assassination of the former US President.
The attempted assassination probably enhances Trump’s “reputation for strength”, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital.
Online betting site PredictIT has a Republican win at 66 cents, from 60 cents on Friday, with the Democrats at 38 cents. The current odds indicate that Republicans are twice as likely to win the election as Democrats.
That sent the dollar rising broadly, which left the euro easing 0.14 percent to $1.0895, while sterling fell 0.09 percent to $1.2978.
Cash US Treasuries were untraded in Asia on Monday owing to the Japan holiday, but 10-year Treasury futures edged lower, indicating yields will rise when cash trading begins later in the day. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
“The market reaction function to a Trump presidency has been characterized by a stronger US dollar and a steepening of the US Treasuries curve, so we might observe some of that this coming week if his election odds are assessed to have further improved following this incident,” said Rong Ren Goh, a portfolio manager at Eastspring Investments.
Crypto prices similarly surged in anticipation of a Trump win, with bitcoin last up 9 percent at $62,760. Ether jumped more than 7 percent to $3,336.80.
Trump has presented himself as a champion for cryptocurrency, although he has not offered specifics on his proposed crypto policy.
In other currencies, the Australian doll ar eased 0.13 percent to $0.6775, while the New Zealand dollar slid 0.3 percent to $0.6100.