The ASX is ready for a third straight day in the green as voters head to the polls in the US and cryptocurrency slides.
Futures are forecasting a 54-point rise on the open, bringing the benchmark ASX 200 index up 0.77%.
What’s new with Wall Street?
The US midterm elections are in full swing — all 435 House and 35 Senate seats are up for grabs in an election sure to define Joe Biden’s presidency.
It’s still early days in the race but that didn’t stop investors from taking Wall Street to another day of gains.
The S&P 500 notched a 0.56% gain to end at 3,828 points, the Nasdaq climbed 0.56% and the Dow finished up 1.02% to 33,160 points.
Ten of the 11 US sectors finished in the green, led by gains among Materials and Information Technology stocks.
Tuesday’s winners included drugmaker Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), which rallied nearly 6% after the company reported positive data related to its cholesterol drug and obesity treatment.
On the other end of the spectrum, shares in Rideshare service Lyft dived 23.3% after the company missed its third-quarter earnings expectations.
Commodities and currency
Oil prices are on the fritz as China’s rising COVID cases and supply risks curb investor appetite.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped 3.1%, taking it below the US$90 benchmark to change hands at US$89 a barrel, while Brent futures dipped below US96 a barrel.
Gold, however, fared much better, jumping 2% to US$1,715 amid a weaker US dollar. Iron ore futures jumped 0.85% to US$88.85 a tonne.
The Aussie dollar also notched a slight gain — it’s currently buying 65 US cents and 56 British pence.
In crypto news, Binance is poised to bail out rival exchange FTX Trading with an acquisition.
The news sent FTX’s digital token plummeting, wiping 77.1% of its value to trade at US$5.09.
Bitcoin continues to feel the pinch, trading down 10.58% at A$28,400, and Ethereum slumped 16.1% to US$1,322.
On the ASX
The Medibank data breach has taken another turn for the worst: criminals released customer data to the dark web this morning.
The embattled private insurer said it was working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Federal Police to catch the criminal but it expects more data to be released.
At the top end of town, Big Four bank NAB has delivered an 8.3% lift in cash earnings, beating market expectations.
CEO Ross McEwan chalked the win up to a windfall from higher interest rates, which buoyed earnings across Australia’s major banks.
News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) (NASDAQ:NWS), Orica, REA Group and Pushpay were among the other blue chips to report earnings this morning.