Trump's COVID diagnosis rattles global markets
The news that U.S. President Donald Trump and wife Melania have COVID-19 rippled through global markets on Friday.
Investors are left wondering what exactly it means for the U.S. election.
And the knee-jerk move was to sell riskier assets.
With markets in China and South Korea closed for holidays, Japan was the first place to look for a reaction by stock traders.
The country’s Nikkei index erased earlier gains after the news broke, closing down by almost 0.7 percent.
Europe then succumbed to the same worries, with all major indexes there opening in the red.
Oil markets slipped too.
U.S. benchmark crude dropped as much as 2.9 percent.
It had already been under pressure after U.S. lawmakers failed to agree a bipartisan deal on more stimulus.
The general anxiety saw support for assets traditionally seen as safe havens.
Japan’s yen posted its sharpest jump in a month.
There were gains too for gold, and benchmark government bonds in Germany and elsewhere.
Now traders wait to see what happens to Trump, and what it all might mean for an election that is just one month away.
