Headlines:
- Democrats take hotly contested Senate seat in Pennsylvania
- Republicans have to look to Nevada as their ace in the hole
- US MBA mortgage applications w.e. 4 November -0.1% vs -0.5% prior
- Bullock defends RBA policy path, says "we have already raised rates aggressively"
- Cryptos stay under pressure amid FTX-Binance drama
- Meta to cut 11,000 employees, or about 13% of its team
- North Korea may have fired what could be a ballistic missile, says Japan Coast Guard
Markets:
- CHF leads, NZD lags on the day
- European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.1%
- US 10-year yields up 0.8 bps to 4.136%
- Gold down 0.3% to $1,707.19
- WTI crude down 1.6% to $87.51
- Bitcoin down 5.6% to $17,651
The early part of the session focused on the vote count in the US midterms, as the supposed "red wave" didn't materialise. Republicans are still holding a slight edge to gain control of the House but were dealt a blow as they lost the Senate seat in Pennsylvania. As such, control for the latter may take days (or even a month) to settle with Nevada and Georgia still up for grabs.
Markets were rather tepid as we got things going in European morning trade but pressure on crypto did lead to a bit of a downside push in stocks as well, before regaining some composure. Things are still looking rough for cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin threatening a break below its June lows under $17,500 and Ethereum potentially dropping back towards $1,000 next.
S&P 500 futures were flattish early on but then fell by 0.6% before recovering some poise now ahead of US trading.
The dollar gained modest ground as a result with EUR/USD pushing back against its October highs of 1.0087-93 but still keeping above its 100-day moving average of 1.0035, trading at 1.0050 currently.
Meanwhile, GBP/USD was dragged lower from 1.1545 to 1.1420 before keeping around 1.1450 levels now after risk trades retreated slightly on the session. AUD/USD also lost ground from 0.6500 to 0.6460 and is holding just above the lows now.
It's all shaping up to be a tense one ahead of the US CPI data tomorrow and that will set the tone for what to expect before the weekend.
