The Dow Jones Industrial index closed up 371.2 points at 18,259.60, its biggest one day percentage gain since last March 1st. Gold, often regarded as a safe haven dropped $25.10 an ounce to close at $1,279.40. This was its biggest drop in a month. This sudden surge happened after the Dow Jones index had been dropping for nine straight days in a row. The drop was exacerbated when the FBI announced on Oct. 28th that they were reviewing newly found Clinton emails. In Toronto the S&P/TSX was up also by 143.20 points and closed at 14,652.45. The Canadian dollar, the loonie, also flew higher at 74.78 up 0.17 for its Friday close.
Last week, polls showed Trump was closing the gap with Clinton, but five major polls on Monday put Clinton in the lead no doubt allaying the fears of some investors that Trump could win. Komal Sri-Kumar, president of Sri-Kumar Global Strategies said: “Clinton is a known quantity and investors hate uncertainty and they are very happy even if taxes were to go up … In the case of Trump, it is uncertain as to what he stands for. The narrowing of the gap in light of Hillary Clinton’s email woes had spooked investors.” Peter Jankovskis of Oakbrook Investments noted: “The market hates uncertainty; it’s tough to fall back on a cliche but it is literally true. Prior to those revelations, people saw Clinton kind of cruising to a victory and that put it in some doubt.”
The S & P also closed up 2.2 percent, 46.34 points, at 2131.52. The Nasdaq too rose 2.4 percent, 119.80 points, to 5166.17. Clinton is regarded as much more a status quo candidate than Trump whom investors see as unpredictable. Many worry about his views on trade agreements. However, some analysts are not convinced that Trump is destined to lose.
Luke Hickmore of Aberdeen Asset Management said: “No one should conclude that this campaign is over or that Hillary is going to win. Financial markets are edging towards Clinton largely because of polling, and we saw in the U.K.’s Brexit referendum how wrong that can be. The memory of that referendum should loom large in investors’ memories because so much of the polling was wrong then.”
Asian markets also rallied today with Japanese Nikkei up 1.6 percent. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also rose by 0.7 percent. The Shanghai composite was up only modestly at 0.3 percent. In Europe the German DAX and French CAC 40 were both up a substantial 1.9 percent with the UK FTSE a bit less at 1.7 percent.
The Clinton campaign is pouring last minute resources into the industrial mid-west. The possibility of a Trump upset still looms.
