The Trump rally continues and European stocks open higher

For the second time this year the markets were proved wrong in their prediction of a major political event as Republic candidate Donald Trump unexpectedly won the US presidential election. Those who are surprised that Americans elected Trump as their 45th president rather than Hillary Clinton have not been paying attention to growing discontent amongst voters, not only in the US as the Brexit vote demonstrated, about globalisation and widening wealth gap.

Perception now is that the controversial multi-billionaire TV presenter and property mogul could be good for business; and talk of tax cuts and heavy spending on infrastructure would certainly be good for growth. There'll be no wall along the Mexican border and most of Trump's daft policies will never see the light of day. It's why the FTSE 100 is adding to yesterday's rally, passing a technical level where talk of a record high by Christmas is not crazy. It could happen much sooner, agreed with Lee Wild, Head of Equity Strategy at stockbroker Interactive Investor.

In Currency Markets the dollar eased on Thursday as traders sought some stability after 24 hours of high drama in global markets that saw a massive selloff in risk assets and an equally dramatic turnaround on Republican Donald Trump's shock U.S. presidential win. The dollar was last down 0.3 percent at 105.40 in choppy trade that took it to a session low of 104.99 from a high of 105.95, its loftiest level since July 27. The euro spiked as high as $1.1299 on Wednesday, its highest since Sept. 8, before tumbling to $1.0902. It last stood at $1.0926, up 0.2 percent. The dollar index was slightly higher on the day at 98.523 after rising to an overnight high of 98.704, its highest since Oct. 28.

In Commodities Markets oil prices reversed some early losses to push higher on Thursday as markets recovered from their initial shock at U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's surprise victory, although traders said that crude fundamentals remained weak. U.S. WTI crude futures were up 0.3 percent, from their last settlement at $45.42 a barrel. Brent crude oil futures were trading at $46.70 per barrel, up 0.7 percent, from their last close. Spot gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,283.76 an ounce and silver was up 0.54 percent at $18.57 an ounce. Copper rose to a near 16-month high on expectations that a Trump presidency could unleash a flood of infrastructure spending. Iron ore rose 4.7 percent to its highest since January 2015.