Investing.com - Donald Trump has been elected as the 47th president of the United States, according to the Associated Press and other major news networks.
The AP made the decision to call the race for Trump after he won the key battleground state of Wisconsin, putting him over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure the victory, the news agency said. Trump had also emerged victorious in a host of other crucial swing states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
Trump had previously declared victory earlier on Wednesday, saying the results give him a "powerful mandate" as he returns to the White House for a second four-year term. It is the culmination of a stunning political comeback for Trump, who had been defeated by current President Joe Biden in the last presidential election in 2020.
Meanwhile, prior coverage by the AP and other regional networks showed Republicans had taken a majority in the Senate, the upper chamber of the US Congress, and were also on track to win the House of Representatives, raising the possibility of a Republican sweep in the 2024 elections.
Such a scenario would present an easier path for Trump to enact major policy changes if elected.
US stocks jumped in early dealmaking on Wednesday to a record high as traders gauged the increasing likelihood of both a victory for Trump and the Republican Party taking control of Congress.
Along with the spike in equities, so-called "Trump trades" rallied. The US dollar was on course for its biggest single-day uptick since 2016 against its other major currency pairs, with the Mexican peso slumping in particular. Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, also touched an all-time peak of $75,060.
In recent months, these assets have often been seen as proxies for the former president's chances of winning. Trump's tariff and immigration plans have been viewed as possibly inflationary, which could bolster the greenback. At the same time, Trump has become an outspoken backer of the cryptocurrency industry, fueling bets on Bitcoin.
Elsewhere, the yield on the benchmark US 10-year Treasury bond reached its highest level since early July. Yields tend to move inversely to prices.
"Trump trades are in full swing [...]," analysts at ING said in a note on Wednesday, adding that markets are also "pricing in" a clean sweep for Republicans in Congress.
Shares in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), whose boss Elon Musk had been ardent supporter of Trump during the campaign, soared, while oil and gas and bank stocks also gained.
On the flip side, renewable energy stocks like Vestas and Orsted (CSE:ORSTED) in Europe were dented by Trump's win. Trump has promised to do away with offshore wind projects via an executive order on his first day in office, arguing that the windmills both hurt the environment and kill whales and birds.
"[S]tocks have the wind at their back for now, but equities will be keeping a close eye on yields, and if the Treasury slump continues, that will short circuit the Trump equity celebration," analysts at Vital Knowledge said in a note.
(Ambar Warrick, the Associated Press, and Reuters contributed reporting.)