Wall Street, Nigerian Stock Exchange ‘relatively immune’ to Trump’s victory

November 9, 2016 5:15 pm

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) seem relatively immune to the much-dreaded Donald Trump victory, as the 45th president of the United States.

On Wednesday, the Nigerian bourse lost N65.6 billion, much lesser than the N180 billion lost, only 24 hours earlier.

Markets around the world have swung low, anytime Trump’s numbers were high, and high, when his numbers were low. Experts claimed that the market had priced-in a Clinton victory.

However, over an hour after Wall Street opened, the stock market has remained relative calm, against claims that the markets were going to experience a Brexit plus.

At the open of the markets, Dow Jones, S&P 500 rose slightly, before falling slightly, to the surprise of many pundits.

After 45 minutes of trading, Dow Jones was up 21 points at 18,355, while S&P 500 was up two points at 2,141 and 0.1 percent higher.

Nasdaq was however down by only 0.5 percent, 16 points of its opening position of 4,764.

According to the UK Guardian, the US stock market is expected to drop by over 1% following Donald Trump’s victory, better than President Barack Obama’s market reactions in 2008 and 2012.

After Obama won in 2008, the market shed five percent, and over two percent in 2012.

In volatile trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 has recovered from its early selloff and is now slightly higher, while the US dollar has recouped its overnight losses, and just hit a one-week high against the euro.

The Mexican peso has plumbed record lows, and is now down 10% today at 20.22 peso to the dollar, after wild swings, the yield (interest rate) on US Treasury bills is up.

Brent, the global benchmark for crude oil, and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI), fell by less than one percent, after the upsetting vote.

David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, says the markets are stable because Trump could be less radical and more pragmatic in office.

“The hallmark of a Donald Trump presidency will be a certain amount of pragmatism,” he said.

Fitch, one of the top three credit rating agency in the world, says Trump’s “tax cuts would increase household disposable income, which could boost short-term growth when coupled with deregulation and higher public investment”.