TOKYO: The dollar tumbled against the yen and euro while the Mexican peso fell off a cliff as polling results in the knife-edge US presidential race pointed to a strong showing by Donald Trump.
A strong yen could derail Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s spend-for-growth policy which has boosted stock prices and pushed the Japanese currency down.
The dollar plunged more than four percent to 101.19 yen before bouncing back to 101.51 yen with caution setting in on reports of an emergency meeting called by Japanese authorities in the face of market turmoil.
“The meeting on exchange of information about financial markets” between the Bank of Japan, the Finance Ministry and the Financial Services Agency “will be held at 3:00 pm (0600 GMT) at the Finance Ministry,” a BoJ spokesman told AFP.
The greenback shed nearly three percent against the euro, which bought $1.1300 in Tokyo trading.
The Canadian dollar, meanwhile, also traded lower, with the greenback rising to about 1.35 to the loonie.
The peso, which has become a proxy for the property mogul’s chances of becoming US president, slumped to a historic low against the dollar.
The dollar was buying 20.78 pesos, eclipsing the Mexican currency’s previous low of 19.93 set in September.
Financial markets have favoured Democrat Clinton over Republican Trump, whose wild policy pronouncements have sown uncertainty.
– Brexit reminder –
“Of course, I can’t say anything definite at the moment, but the market atmosphere reminds me of that five months ago,” Daisuke Karakama, market economist at Mizuho Bank said, referring to the Brexit shock.
“Mr Trump has made it clear that he hates a strong dollar, which is a threat” to the floating-rate system, he added.
His “inward-looking policy” was moving financial markets, Karakama said.
Analysts say Mexico’s economy could suffer under a Trump presidency because of his vow to renegotiate a free trade deal, block migrants’ remittances to their homeland and make the Mexican government pay billions for a massive border wall.
“This is a huge movement, one of the biggest in recent years,” said Yukio Ishizuki, a senior forex strategist at Daiwa Securities.
“I don’t think it is the Mexico-must-pay-for-the wall comment made by Trump because it is not very realistic,” he added.
“Investors are more worried about him saying he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. If the United States does that seriously, it would be more than just a (problem) for Canada and Mexico.”
Concern in Japan, a close security ally of the US and a major trading partner, has also risen during the campaign on Trump’s opposition to the
Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement and a call for Tokyo to pay more to support the alliance.
