flat-footed 復習
白熱した米国大統領選で、予想外のトランプ氏の勝利により、世界市場に激震が走っています。
Global Markets Rocked by Trump Election Upset
Markets like predictability, and tonight's results have been anything but predictable.
Global markets, predicting a Clinton win for sometime now, were caught flatfooted tonight and are now in disarray.
The markets became jittery just before 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday night, as it became clearer that Florida might break for Donald Trump.
Over the next few hours as Trump's chance to clinch the presidency become more probable, investors' screens began flashing red in a scene reminiscent of the massive sell-offs that followed the United Kingdom's shock vote on June 23 to leave the European Union -- a vote known as Brexit.
Investor around the world scrambled to re-calibrate positions taken under the presumption of a Clinton victory.
"This is obviously not the outcome that markets had priced in at 4 p.m. today," Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex, told ABC News by phone from New York. "The way the markets were looking going in and the way polls and offshore odds were looking there was going to be a 90% chance of a Hillary Clinton victory, and a small chance of an upset."
"Now, looking at it just a few hours later, that was all wrong -- 100% wrong," he added.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/markets-jittery-results-received/story?id=43401507
取り上げる表現は"flat-footed"です。
そのまま訳すと、「平らな足の」となりますが、ここでは意味が通りません。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版(大修館)で調べてみると、「扁平足をした」の他に、「(拒否などが)きっぱりした、(信念、態度などが)断固とした」や「油断して」、「ぎこちない、まずい」という意味があることが分かりました。
また、"catch him flat-footed"で「彼に不意打ちをくらわす」という表現がありました。
したがってここでは、文脈的に、「世界市場は不意打ちをくらった」となるかと思います。
東京株式市場でも、選挙戦の結果を受け、日経平均株価が一時1000円以上値上がりするなど、混乱が起きています。(Akim)
