Stocks plummet — then rise — as investors react to a Trump presidency

As Donald Trump secured the U.S. presidency early Wednesday morning, markets around the world and the value of the dollar nose-dived and then rebounded in a market see-saw.

By the time the U.S. stock market opened at 9:30 a.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by only 0.2 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was down 0.3 percent.

But overnight, Trump’s upset over opponent Hillary Clinton sent Dow, S&P and Nasdaq’s stock futures plummeting by about 5 percent. At one point, S&P’s stock index was temporarily suspended. The U.S. dollar lost ground, too, but then regained it again by the time stocks opened.

The unexpected Trump’s victory was likely a major contributor to the stock decline, similar to the decline that followed Britain’s decision this summer to exit the European Union. Following Brexit, the U.S. stock market saw a two-day drop of nearly 6 percent.

Trump’s victory speech, in which he called for Americans to unite, stymied some of the decline early Wednesday. About an hour before the opening bell on Wall Street, the three major stock indexes had cut back losses to about a one percent decline.

Following the announcement of Trump’s victory, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index dropped 5.4 percent, the Mexican peso hit a record low and the Canadian dollar dropped to an eight-month low of $1.3525.

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Stocks plummet — then rise — as investors react to a Trump presidency."