With less than 24 hours to go until the 45th President of the United States of America is announced, markets are once again trading timidly, as tonight’s election is once again too close to call for investors.

However yesterday’s second ‘all-clear’ for Democratic nominee Clinton from the FBI in its investigation into her use of a private email server saw markets rally across the globe. Could yesterday’s performance potentially foreshadow what the result of a Democratic victory (or indeed a Republican one) would mean for markets?

The overriding market sentiment was one of relief; if there’s one thing markets hate, it’s uncertainty, and Clinton’s (second) clearing from the FBI helped to remove some (if not a very small proportion) of the election uncertainty. As a result markets rallied, safe havens sold–off and investors received an insight into who the winners and losers of a Clinton victory would be.

Stateside, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both jumped by a phenomenal 2.1%, the strongest trading session since March for the former, posting a greater than 300 point gain, whilst the latter snapped a run of nine straight losing sessions, its longest since the 2008 financial crisis, and pared virtually all losses the index suffered as the FBI delved into Clinton’s emails once more.

The USD pared losses incurred after the October 28th FBI ‘re-investigation’ announcement, rallying sharply on the increased expectations of a US Fed rate hike in December as Clinton extended her lead.

Back in London, the UK 100 bounced by 1.7%, that stronger Dollar helping the index components (of which the majority enjoy greenback-denominated earnings) to buck last week’s trend of negative trading sessions as the FBI investigation was ongoing. The UK Index rally was led by the General Mining sector, whilst notable laggard (and peer) Fresnillo, the precious metal miner, languished at the back of the pack as the price of its key products declined. Aforementioned Dollar strength helped to buoy the miners as commodity prices increased, whereas the uptick in bond yields hampered inherently defensive Utilities companies, the worst performing sector of the day.

Meanwhile, safe haven assets took a drumming, with the most notable slump coming from Gold. The precious metal broke its longest positive trading streak in 9 months as investors once again flocked to equities and increased US Fed December rate hike expectations put downarad pressure on Gold price.

Yesterday, the markets reflected their support of Hillary and dislike for the unpredictable entity that is Trump. Could yesterday’s performance be repeated come Wednesday morning?

It’s worth remembering, however, this is all hypothetical: Clinton and the Democrats could still sweep clearing the path for an influx of legislation damaging financial markets; a victorious Trump might in fact emerge as the height of presidentiality; it may end up being so close it is called as a tie. In which case we may not be know the 45th President for weeks, if not months.

Whatever the case, the final few hours of the 2016 Presidential race are set to see markets twist and turn as investors price in a victory for either party. Only time will tell, however, if their predictions prove correct.

Henry Croft, Research Analyst, 8 November