Asian stocks edge down as investors await US election results

Equities traded decrease and forex markets had been regular on Wednesday in Asia as buyers monitored US election outcomes for any indicators of a serious upset.

Bitcoin fell 3 per cent to $18,139 in a broad sell-off of crypto belongings after the close to collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, one of many world’s largest crypto exchanges, attributable to a liquidity crunch. Bitcoin had fallen as a lot as 17 per cent on Tuesday whereas smaller cash confronted steeper falls.

In China, the CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed shares fell 0.75 per cent, whereas Japan’s Topix shed 0.4 per cent and Hong Kong’s Grasp Seng fell 1.5 per cent.

The minor strikes of Asian shares got here as polls in lots of US states closed and outcomes started to filter in for midterm elections throughout the nation.

Among the many earliest outcomes, Republican gubernatorial candidates notched victories in Florida and Arkansas, whereas governorships in Maryland and Massachusetts flipped to Democratic management.

Analysts mentioned markets had already priced in Republican majorities in each the US Home and Senate.

“Prediction markets — and possibly monetary markets — count on a Republican majority in each chambers,” mentioned Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs.

“The monetary market response to a Republican win ought to be muted, because the Home end result is already broadly anticipated,” Hatzius mentioned, including {that a} Democratic victory in each the Home and Senate “would seemingly weigh on equities, as market individuals would possibly count on further company tax will increase.”

Futures markets tipped the benchmark S&P 500 index to open flat later within the day, whereas the FTSE 100 was anticipated to shed 0.3 per cent.

Over the past 18 midterm election cycles, the S&P 500 has superior by a median of about 5 per cent within the yr main as much as election day, however greater than 15 per cent within the 12 months after, in accordance with analysts at Oxford Economics.

In forex markets, the greenback index monitoring the dollar towards a basket of worldwide friends ticked up 0.2 per cent, whereas the euro edged down 0.1 per cent to $1.0064.

Further reporting by Jaren Kerr in New York