It is fair to say that 2016 is a year full of surprises. Anyone who had the foresight to predict Britain voting to leave the European Union, Leicester City winning the Premier League title and Donald J. Trump being elected president of the United States of America could be in for a huge payout.
In January, bookmaker Paddy Power was offering odds on a Brexit/Leicester City/Trump treble at odds of 3,000,000/1, and so if you had put a £10 bet on back at the start of the year, you would now be £30 million better off!
Despite much uncertainty, the UK economy remains resilient in the face of Brexit, Leicester City are in strong position to progress to the UEFA Champions League last-16, and the Brexit-style financial disarray predicted on a Trump victory has so far failed to materialise.
However, many traders had priced-in a win for Hillary Clinton, meaning that investors endured a rollercoaster ride in the immediate aftermath of the election result, amid volatility that roiled financial markets around the world, until a few conciliatory comments in Trump’s victory speech calmed the financial markets.
“We clearly saw the market turn when Donald Trump began speaking and rather than continuing with divisive campaign rhetoric, thanked Hillary Clinton, said he would reach out to all Americans and the Democrats for guidance,” said Mark Haefele, global chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management.
The knee-jerk reaction on the markets may have been predictable, but what longer-term impact Trump’s victory has on global events is not so clear given that he is an unknown quantity, and it would seem that some Americans are not willing to stick around and find out.
Flight to safety
Canada’s immigration website crashed in the early hours of Wednesday morning – just as the election result started moving in Trump’s favour, while New Zealand immigration services also reported increased traffic to its website for residency visas from US nationals in the hours before Trump surged to victory.
