Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump is projected to win the tight race for the 47th U.S. president, which sent the U.S. dollar surging and oil prices falling.
Since oil is priced in dollars, a rising U.S. dollar typically leads to lower oil prices as a stronger greenback makes oil more expensive to buy for holders of other currencies.
As of 3:40 a.m. E.T. Donald Trump was projected to win the presidential race against Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
The New York Times’s Live Presidential Forecast showed as of 3:40 a.m. E.T. that Trump is “very likely” to win the election with more than 95% chance of victory.
As of 4:00 a.m. ET, Trump was leading Harris in all the major battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Fox News is projecting that Trump defeated Harris. According to The Fox News Decision Desk, Trump was projected to have exceeded the 270 electoral vote threshold to be elected president after winning the battleground states of North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
Nevada, Arizona, and Michigan were also leaning toward Trump, per the part of the counted ballots as of 4:00 a.m.
As Trump is projected to win the race that has been too close to call in the past weeks, the U.S. dollar surged against other major currencies. This weighed on oil prices.
The U.S. benchmark WTI Crude was down by 1.71% at $70.90 per barrel in Asian trade, or as of 4:00 a.m. ET in the United States. The international benchmark, Brent Crude, fell by 1.65% and traded at $74.34.
Analysts say a Trump win would be bullish for oil prices in the near term.
“If Trump wins, it is bullish for the oil market in the short-term due to prospects of tighter sanctions on Iranian oil,” Soni Kumari, commodity strategist at ANZ Research, told Reuters.
Source: Oilprice.com
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