• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Analysts expected oil to surge above $200 but China has quietly kept prices half of that—and can’t for much longer

2

Corporate America has been draining the world's water. Matt Damon's new campaign calls on Gap, Starbucks, and Amazon to help give it back

3

Current price of oil as of June 11, 2026

1

Analysts expected oil to surge above $200 but China has quietly kept prices half of that—and can’t for much longer

2

Corporate America has been draining the world's water. Matt Damon's new campaign calls on Gap, Starbucks, and Amazon to help give it back

3

Current price of oil as of June 11, 2026
PoliticsKamala Harris

The U.S. dollar is weakening because some investors think Kamala Harris will win

Paolo Confino
By
Paolo Confino
Paolo Confino
Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
Paolo Confino
By
Paolo Confino
Paolo Confino
Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 21, 2024, 3:09 PM ET
Vice President Kamala Harris
Investors are ditching the “Trump trades” because of Vice President Kamala Harris’s rise in the polls.Grant Baldwin—Getty Images

The election prospects of former President Donald Trump are already having an effect on the markets. 

Recommended Video

So-called Trump trades, a series of investments set to pay off should he get reelected, have started to unwind, according to a recent note from investment bank Macquarie. 

One of the most prominent of such trades has been a bet on a stronger U.S. dollar. But as of Wednesday, the dollar’s DX-Y index (which measures the dollar against a basket of other currencies) is hovering right around its 2024 low. It’s fallen just under 3% so far in August.

Now, with the victory of Vice President Kamala Harris looking more likely, the dollar could weaken further, Macquarie said.

“The weakness is partly attributable to the unwinding of the ‘Trump trade,’ we believe, which had been built on the premise of more inflation and higher interest rates in the U.S., which would support the USD,” Macquarie global FX and rates strategist Thierry Wizman told Fortune. 

Macquarie already believed the dollar was weaker than it should have been. There were favorable indicators for the dollar, including a series of slumps in Asian stock markets and the central banks of the U.K. and the eurozone both cutting interest rates. But none of them raised the relative value of the dollar.

“That the U.S. dollar has weakened since early August is a bit weird, in our view, as it has come during a period in which the U.S. data (retail sales, initial claims, services ISM) has pointed to renewed relative strength in the U.S., following the worries about a lapse into recession during late July and early August,” Wizman wrote.

‘Kamala-mentum’

The explanation, Wizman and his team concluded, was that investors had decided to walk away from the “Trump trades” because they think the candidate who would make them happen might not win. Wizman points to the fact that many of the Trump trades started to unwind in the week immediately following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he wouldn’t seek the Democratic Party’s nomination. A few weeks later, in early August when the first polls showing Harris overtaking Trump came out, the DXY sagged. That was more circumstantial evidence that the Trump trades were indeed unwinding, according to Wizman. 

The Harris campaign’s momentum, which Macquarie dubbed “Kamala-mentum,” would continue the weakening of the U.S. dollar as the Fed cuts interest rates, Macquarie says. With the Democratic National Convention in full swing, a post-convention bounce in the polls for Harris could even accelerate the dollar’s fall, according to Macquarie. 

Backing off from the Trump trade seems to indicate that at least some investors are losing faith in Trump’s chances come November. However, with several months to go until the election any outcome is far from a foregone conclusion. Especially in a race such as this year’s that was so recently upended, according to Frank Kelly, senior political strategist at investment firm DWS. “July was Trump’s month, August was Harris’s month, and September is going to be an all-out brawl,” he said. 

The uncertainty as much as anything else is contributing to the pullback from the Trump trades. The latest polls show the two candidates within one to two percentage points of each other. Before Harris’s recent lead in some polls, Trump had been far ahead of Biden, seemingly cruising to a victory. No longer able to bet on a sure thing, investors adjusted.

A Trump victory might force the Fed to support the dollar

Until now investors had associated Trump with a stronger U.S. dollar because they believed his priorities of blanket tariffs, drastically curbing immigration, and cutting taxes would be broadly inflationary, and that in turn would force the Fed to keep rates higher—which would raise the dollar’s relative value on the international currency markets. 

“In our view, Trump was perceived to be better—fundamentally—for a stronger U.S. dollar than a Democratic administration would be,” Wizman wrote. “That’s because Trump’s core policies—tax breaks, restrictions on immigration, tariffs—would be deemed to be more inflationary, thereby keeping policy rates higher than otherwise.”

Ironically, Trump himself doesn’t favor a strong dollar. In the past Trump has argued that the dollar is too strong, which made it too expensive for foreign buyers to purchase U.S. goods. “We have a big currency problem,” Trump told Bloomberg in July. 

‘Now they’ll start battering each other with policy issues’

Despite that, the majority of investors and economists expect Trump’s policies to do the opposite. “The market’s perception—and ours—is that Trump’s policies should be associated with higher policy interest rates than Harris’s,” Wizman wrote in his note.

Throughout the early days of her campaign, Harris has been relatively vague on policy. However, she’s started rolling out more details over the past week. So far, her economic views include advocating for regulations against excessive price increases on consumer goods; building more housing stock; and eliminating taxes on tips (an idea first introduced by Trump). 

The Harris campaign has telegraphed that still more policy details will arrive over the coming weeks. The ongoing Democratic National Convention could serve as a starting point for a broader policy rollout. Kelly, the political strategist, thinks once that happens the election campaign will move into its next phase. “Now they’ll start battering each other with policy issues rather than it being personal,” he said. 

Subscribe to Fortune Gulf Brief. Every Tuesday, this new newsletter delivers clear-eyed, authoritative intelligence on the deals, decisions, policies, and power shifts shaping one of the world’s most consequential regions, written for the people who need to act on it. Sign up here.
About the Author
Paolo Confino
By Paolo ConfinoReporter

Paolo Confino is a former reporter on Fortune’s global news desk where he covers each day’s most important stories.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Politics

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Politics

fda
HealthTobacco
Why is the FDA approving kid-friendly, fruit-flavored e-cigarettes?
By Matthew Perrone and The Associated PressJune 12, 2026
3 hours ago
lula
EnvironmentTariffs
Trump turned environmentalist to slap new tariffs on Brazil, so why are deforestation rates down?
By Gabriela Sa Pessoa and The Associated PressJune 12, 2026
3 hours ago
defense
PoliticsDefense
Trump says Europe freeloads on defense. Britain’s own (former) Defense Secretary just agreed
By Jill Lawless, Danica Kirka and The Associated PressJune 11, 2026
8 hours ago
carney
North AmericaSocial Media
Canada joins global movement to ban social media for kids: ‘We are failing our children. Enough is enough’
By Rob Gillies and The Associated PressJune 11, 2026
20 hours ago
gianni
North AmericaWorld Cup
Mexico City roasts new chandeliers slapped onto its metro for World Cup
By Megan Janetsky and The Associated PressJune 11, 2026
20 hours ago
T-minus 24 hours: On the eve of SpaceX IPO liftoff some Wall Street analysts say the stock is worth only half of Elon Musk’s price
EconomyMarkets
T-minus 24 hours: On the eve of SpaceX IPO liftoff some Wall Street analysts say the stock is worth only half of Elon Musk’s price
By Jim EdwardsJune 11, 2026
23 hours ago

Most Popular

Analysts expected oil to surge above $200 but China has quietly kept prices half of that—and can’t for much longer
Energy
Analysts expected oil to surge above $200 but China has quietly kept prices half of that—and can’t for much longer
By Sasha RogelbergJune 10, 2026
2 days ago
Corporate America has been draining the world's water. Matt Damon's new campaign calls on Gap, Starbucks, and Amazon to help give it back
Environment
Corporate America has been draining the world's water. Matt Damon's new campaign calls on Gap, Starbucks, and Amazon to help give it back
By Catherina GioinoJune 9, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of oil as of June 11, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 11, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 11, 2026
21 hours ago
Marc Lore’s robots make 500 burrito bowls an hour. A human can make 45
Innovation
Marc Lore’s robots make 500 burrito bowls an hour. A human can make 45
By Amanda GerutJune 9, 2026
2 days ago
Costco CEO Ron Vachris rose from forklift driver to the C-suite without a college degree: ‘Don’t chase a title’ is the career advice that got him there
Success
Costco CEO Ron Vachris rose from forklift driver to the C-suite without a college degree: ‘Don’t chase a title’ is the career advice that got him there
By Preston ForeJune 8, 2026
4 days ago
SpaceX's record IPO has Wall Street torn between a Musk 'holy grail' and a $135-per-share leap of faith
Startups & Venture
SpaceX's record IPO has Wall Street torn between a Musk 'holy grail' and a $135-per-share leap of faith
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 11, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.