Global markets are freaking out right now, because Trump

Investors have been caught off guard
 By 
Jason Abbruzzese
 on 
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Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

UPDATE: Nov. 9, 2016, 12:24 a.m. EST

Donald Trump's surge in the U.S. election on Tuesday night sent markets around the world spinning sharply downward.

Trump's position on global trade — primarily, that the U.S. should do less of it — has caused concern about what that'd mean for a global economy that's been in a state of sluggish growth.


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As Trump surged in Tuesday night's election returns, the markets tanked. Like this:

Dow Futures: Investors were preparing for a significant decline in U.S stocks at the mere idea of Trump being elected. Dow Jones futures went down as much as 800 points, as of 10:28 PM EST.

The Peso: The Mexican currency dropped sharply, on fears that a Trump presidency will hammer the economy, particularly if the U.S. withdraws from major trade agreements.

Other international markets around the world dropped sharply, including in Australia, Japan and Hong Kong.

— And gold and U.S. treasuries are rallying, in a classic flight to "safer" investments, as investors hedge their bets against stock markets and currencies.

The broad thing to understand is that investors had expected — as did most political pundits — that Hillary Clinton would win. When they get caught off guard, markets get turbulent.

The rally by Trump and resulting market fallout is reminiscent of the Brexit vote, which caught much of the world by surprise and sent the market into a brief but significant tailspin.

Both the S&P500 and the Nasdaq ended up halting trading for a brief period due to the declines.

To put the market turmoil in historical terms:

Topics Elections

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Jason Abbruzzese

Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.

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