Who won the U.S. presidential debate? Watch the Mexican peso, ran a Washington Post headline Thursday.
The peso rose to a six-week high shortly after the end of the third debate during which Republican candidate Donald Trump made the unprecedented announcement that he might not accept the results of the November 8 election.
The peso wavered during the first half-hour of the debate, even loosing ground to the dollar as Trump gave his most focused performance yet. But Mexico’s currency rebounded as the debate wore on and Trump began to unravel, becoming riled by Hillary Clinton’s jabs about his temperament, character and treatment of women.
In the aftermath of the debate, and with news networks handing Clinton a clear victory and admonishing Trump for his anti-democratic position on the election outcome, the peso jumped to its highest level since early September, trading in Tokyo at 18.4558 to the dollar.
Financial analysts agree that currency markets – in particular the peso – are tied into Trump’s fluctuating fortunes.
It is significant that the peso was performing at its worst when Trump was in the ascendancy prior to the first debate.
The peso gradually rebounded after the recording of Trump’s sexual bragging was released to the public and the candidate struggled to appear presidential in the cauldron of the debates.
Mexicans fear a Trump victory could destabilize its economy. The Republican candidate is keen to renegotiate – or even scrap – the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), deport million of undocumented Mexicans from the United States and slap high tariffs on many imports from south of the border.
Although some analysts say the peso could stabilize at around 18 to the dollar by the end of the year should Clinton win the election, others are more cautious, suggesting the Mexican currency won’t be out of the weeds completely and will continue to be buffeted by global factors such as the low price of oil, as well as slow domestic growth.