Currency traders think about a Trump win
First peso hit, now loonie in traders’ sights
The peso has been pummeled by Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.
According to foreign-exchange strategists, risks are now starting to spill north of the border, too, where the Canadian dollar is also becoming sensitive to the prospect of the Republican nominee prevailing in the presidential election.
“U.S. politics will remain at the forefront of the markets’ minds from now on, adding an edge to the general nervousness,” wrote Société Générale global strategist Kit Juckes in a note to clients on Sunday. “The Mexican peso took all the early impact, but it’s spreading and by Friday it had reached the Canadian dollar.”
The loonie is commonly described as a petrocurrency, but lately, there are signs it’s more of a petrified-by-Trump currency.
Juckes’ colleague, FX derivatives strategist Olivier Korber, said Trump’s declaration that he would pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement threatens not only Mexico’s economic prosperity, but Canada’s too.
“The threat weighing on Canada’s status as a privileged trade partner should be increasingly discounted by FX markets,” wrote Korber.
While the connection between the Mexican peso and Trump’s odds is relatively straightforward, you have to look to derivatives to get a handle on how U.S. election risk has migrated north.
Over the past two weeks there’s been a spike in the implied volatility of options on the U.S. dollar relative to the Canadian currency that expire 10 days after the election, and unlike similar dated options for the Australian dollar — another commodity currency — they’ve remained elevated.
Credit Suisse strategist Alvise Marino sees the moves in derivatives pricing as part of a long overdue wake-up call for traders.
But any election-related pain for the loonie, he added, would be cushioned by the nation’s safehaven status, as Canada continues to enjoy a stellar triple-A credit rating.