Donald Trump is set to return to the White House after being projected as the winner in all crucial swing states. Trump, speaking to supporters at his election observation party in West Palm Beach, Florida, called it “a political victory the likes of which our country has never seen.” Although Trump has not yet been declared the winner by most news outlets, he won Pennsylvania, breaching the Democrats’ Blue Wall and all but ending Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ hopes for a comeback. Republicans would also control the Senate, giving Trump the support he needed to push through his economic policies. Control of the House of Representatives remained too close. Exit polls from a consortium of networks showed that Trump was helped by voters’ frustration with the state of the economy. The direction became clear more quickly than many expected. Even as the first Asian Day results started pouring in, some regional authorities were already guarding their currencies, while others were on standby.

Market response was widespread and rapid. U.S. stock futures rose, Treasury yields rose and the dollar rose the most since March 2020. Emerging market currencies weakened. Bitcoin jumped to a record, oil fell and gold plummeted. The Chinese yuan and stock prices fell on concerns about the potential fallout from increased trade tensions, although shares of a Chinese company that sounds like “Trump wins big” to Mandarin speakers rose.