TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) — The dollar fell against the Japanese yen on Wednesday morning (November 9) as early exit polls for the U.S. presidential election revealed Republican candidate Donald Trump moving ahead.
General manager and FX analyst at Japan’s Gaitame.com, Takuya Kanda, said that Trump’s protectionist views have led the market to move toward a more risk-averting direction.
“If Trump becomes president, Japan will struggle with foreign exchange intervention, and yen-selling intervention; and also, considering his views on Mexico and other neighboring countries, he has shown a dislike toward immigrants. This would move the markets toward more risk-averting direction,” Kanda said.
He added that a win for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would make things easier for Japan to apply desired policies.
“In the short run, having Clinton win the elections would allow Japan to apply policies much easily, but of course, we can never be too certain if we haven’t seen the results, and the economic, financial and diplomatic policies enforced by the new president,” he added
At midday break, the Nikkei dropped 2.2 percent at 16,788.90 after earlier tumbling as much as 3.1 percent to hit 16,646.04, the lowest level since Oct. 4.