the dollar ticked higher tuesday as investors awaited the outcome of the hotly contested u.s. presidential election. the wsj dollar index, which measures the u.s. currency against 16 others, rose about 0.1% to 88.06 as the greenback gained against the japanese yen and euro. many investors see democratic nominee hillary clinton as the <u+201c>status quo<u+201d> candidate whose policies are unlikely to inject much volatility into markets. meanwhile, analysts say uncertainty surrounding mr. trump<u+2019>s policy proposals could hurt the dollar and other risk-sensitive currencies such as the mexican peso. the last round of national polls showed mrs. clinton with a steady but narrow lead over mr. trump, ranging from 3 to 6 percentage points. in the wall street journal/nbc news poll released sunday, mrs. clinton led by 4 percentage points. some real-time estimates of the election results tuesday showed mrs. clinton leading in crucial swing states. the mexican peso, seen as the most vulnerable currency to the election outcome, rose more than 1% against the dollar tuesday. the peso has loosely tracked mr. trump<u+2019>s chances of winning due to fears that his pledges to renegotiate key trade pacts and reform immigration would damage the mexican economy. polls for key battleground states such as north carolina and florida close around 8 p.m. and could give investors an early indication of the election outcome. <u+201c>markets are basically pricing in a 80% to 85% that clinton wins,<u+201d> said mark mccormick, north american head of fx strategy at td securities. <u+201c>if we do see any surprises, we will see a big repricing in the dollar.<u+201d> the cost of protecting against swings in currencies such as the mexican peso and japanese yen soared tuesday, signaling that investors are bracing for volatility as u.s. election results roll in. the overnight implied-volatility on a u.s. dollar-mexican peso options contract, a gauge of how expensive it is to hedge against overnight swings in the pair, surged to all-time highs tuesday. the metric was recently at 69.975%, up from 16.075% monday, according to thomson reuters data. for the japanese yen, many investors<u+2019> preferred safe-haven, implied-volatility jumped to 34.55% from 10.563% monday, according to thomson reuters data. write to chelsey dulaney at chelsey.dulaney@wsj.com
dollar ticked higher as investors await u.s. election outcome - wsj
chelsey dulaney