If anyone doubted how closely traders need to watch US President Donald Trump's public words or actions, data on Thursday showed trading volumes on the world's biggest financial market have routinely jumped on-year after some of his most high-profile comments. A study of Trump's first 100 days in office by currency market utility CLS shows the hourly surges in currency market volumes compared with the equivalent from the same trading day a year earlier around market-sensitive actions or comments by Trump or his aides.

Such cases include this month's surprise missile strike on Syria, his comments on the dollar last month, his promise in February to deliver a "phenomenal" tax plan, or the accusation on January 31 that other governments were deliberately weakening their currencies to the United States' detriment. "Irrespective of how successful President Trump is perceived to have been so far, he and his administration dominated news headlines during the first 100 days in office," CLS analysts said in the paper.

"Based on the analysis..., actions and statements by President Trump and his administration do appear to have an impact on the FX spot market." The paper showed the biggest spike in volumes - to $84 billion from an average for the same hour a year earlier of less than $50 billion - centred on Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro's comment that Germany was using a grossly undervalued euro to exploit its trading partners.

Copyright Reuters, 2017