Asian Stocks Mirror Wall Street Gains As Investors Brace For Tight US Election Results

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific opened higher on Wednesday, taking cues from Wall Street gains as voters in the US head to cast votes in a close contest for the Oval Office between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Equity benchmarks in South Korea, Australia and Japan opened higher. The Nikkei was 250 points, or 0.65%, higher at 38,430, while the Kospi was up 4 points, or 0.16%, at 2,581 as of 6:00 a.m.

Stocks in China extended gain on Tuesday as the government announced measures to attract foreign investments by allowing them to provide capital for publicly traded firms as strategic investors.

Meanwhile, news agency AP called out that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has won in Vermont, while Donald Trump has beaten his rival in Kentucky and Indiana.

The polls have closed in parts of Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, and New Hampshire, as well as in South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia at 7:00 p.m. New York time.

A note from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk said a Republican sweep may push the S&P 500 up by 3%, Bloomberg reported. A decline of the same size is possible should the Democrats win both the presidency and Congress, it said.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.23% and 1.02%, respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.43%.

Later in the week, focus from election results will shift to the Federal Reserve as it decided its key interest rate on Thursday, likely influenced by the candidate emerging victorious in the presidential race. While Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will likely stress that the current conditions warrant less restrictive policy, he still risks political backlash.

On the commodity front, crude oil prices were steady after a five-day gain as traders monitored a tight US presidential election. Brent crude was trading 0.60% higher at $75.53 a barrel as of 6:06 a.m. IST. West Texas Intermediate was down 0.03% at $71.97.