Bitcoin surged on Monday following an assassination attempt on Donald Trump as traders increased their bets on the former president winning November’s US presidential election. The price of bitcoin rose more than 10 per cent to $63,595, its highest level in two weeks, after Trump was injured in the ear during an assassination attempt by a gunman at a campaign rally at the weekend.
“For prison stocks, the expectation is that if Trump wins he’ll get stricter on the border and those companies will benefit,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading, who was less convinced guns were a clear Trump-related trade. “Gun stocks always have volatility around the election cycle and it usually winds up being simply a lot of noise in the market.”The S&P 500 closed 0.3 per cent higher on the day, though just short of a new record high.