Currency on course for best day since March 2020, while bitcoin also climbs

• Business live – latest updates
• US election 2024 – live news updates

Donald Trump’s almost certain victory in the US presidential election has sent the dollar soaring towards its biggest one-day rise, while cryptocurrency traders pushed bitcoin to a fresh all-time high.

The likelihood that the Republicans would also grab a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, giving Trump sweeping powers to cut taxes and impose tariffs on imported goods, was also judged as a positive for the US currency even before some states had given their verdict.