US Elections: Its Trump vs Clinton today - Rabobank

Michael Every, Head of Financial Markets Research at Rabobank, suggests that at 9pm EST tonight in the US (that’s 3am in Europe and 9am in Hong Kong) Donald Trump will draw the largest TV audience in his career as he and Hillary Clinton take the stage together in the first of three live televised presidential debates.

Key Quotes

“In truth it will probably not be the mixed-martial arts slap-down, or the Rocky Balboa vs. Ivan Drago glamour match that some might be wanting/expecting to see. Ironically, that’s because political pundits see Trump as needing to be less Trump-ish, and Clinton likewise less Clinton-esque, in order to make their best case with undecided independent voters. So why the interest? Because, notably, the debate falls as a slew of opinion polls put the two candidates at more-or-less level pegging, and yet – as Bloomberg notes today – “US Election Risk Not Priced in as Uncertainty Rises”. In short, markets (except arguably USD/MXN) might have been snoozing their way through the US election cycle so far, and so today might be the first opportunity to see how things might look against a backdrop that suggests there’s a real chance of a shock in November. “Politics is show-business for ugly people,” as they say.”