Investing.com - The dollar slumped further in Asia on Wednesday on safe haven demand as results showed the U.S. presidential race leaning toward Republican candidate Donald Trump as only a handful of key battleground states remained that could lead to victory for rival Hillary Clinton.
USD/JPY changed hands at 101.80, down 3.20%. AUD/USD traded at 0.7630, down 1.70%, while GBP/USD gained 0.99% to 1.2506. EUR/USD traded at 1.1254, up 2.07%.
Voting outcomes in key states of Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Virginia remained too close to call, U.S. television networks said Tuesday evening, with exit polls and early trend results filtering in showing a Trump win in Ohio and possibly Florida and North Carolina, leading to volatile markets Wednesday in the Asian time zone.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, plunged 1.71% to 96.21.
Earlier in China, CPI figures for October came in at a gain of 2.1% year-on-year as expected, with month-on-month data showing a fall of 0.1%, from the previous rise of 0.7%. PPI figures showed a 1.2% increases, more than the 0.8% gain seen year-on-year.
In Australia, Westpac consumer sentiment for November fell 1.1% compared with a previous reading of a 1.1% gain. In Japan, the current account for September recorded a ¥1.821 trillion surplus, narrower than the ¥1.96 trillion surplus seen unadjusted, while seasonally adjusted figure came in at ¥1.48 trillion, also narrower than the ¥1.98 trillion surplus seen.
Overnight, the dollar held steady against the other majors currencies on Tuesday, as markets prepared for the results of the U.S. presidential election opposing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Markets were jittery ahead of the results of the U.S. presidential vote, although sentiment remained mildly supported after the FBI informed Congress over the weekend that it had "not changed its conclusions" on the private email server maintained by Hillary Clinton.
The news fueled expectations that the Democratic candidate could win Tuesday’s election, which is seen as more source of stability for financial markets.