US Election 2024: Trump makes early gains in exit polls, dollar strengthens and bitcoin rises

The dollar rallied broadly on Wednesday as early exit polls in the extremely close U.S. presidential election appeared to give an edge to Republican Donald Trump.

With 10.1 per centof the vote counted in key battleground state Georgia, Trump had 60.9 per centto Democrat Kamala Harris' 38.6 per cent, according to Edison Research.

Trump won eight states in the election while Harris captured three states and Washington, D.C., Edison Research projected. The early results were as anticipated, with the contest expected to come down to seven swing states.

Trump's tariff and immigration policies are seen as inflationary by analysts, buoying the dollar.

The dollar index - which measures the currency against six major peers including the euro and yen - rose 0.76 per centto 104.14 as of 0048 GMT.

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The euro dropped 0.77 per centto $1.0844, while the dollar added 0.68 per centto 152.64 yen.

Bitcoin climbed more than 3 per centto $71,317. Trump is seen as more actively supportive of cryptocurrencies than Harris.

"It is too early to call any of these races and to make any real projections on the results so far, but the U.S. dollar has regained a lot of ground lost recently," said James Kniveton, a senior corporate forex dealer at Convera.

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"Risk currencies such as the AUD that appreciated ahead of a tightening race are having a pullback as Trump racks up some early wins."

The Aussie slid 0.63 per centto $0.6595.

The U.S. currency jumped more than 1 per centto 20.3050 Mexican pesos. It rose 0.46 per centto 7.1291 yuan in offshore trading. Mexico and China are among countries that stand to be hardest hit by Trump tariffs.

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