Wall St awaits Georgia Senate vote: ASX set to open lower

Following negative leads from US markets, the Australian share market looks set to open lower this morning. Wall Street was pushed down due to concern over today’s elections for two Senate seats in Georgia, the outcome will determine whether Joe Biden can move forward with a progressive agenda. In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered schools to be shut in England and ordered the public to stay home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Their National Health Service is being pushed to breaking point. Back home, Victoria has recorded three new community cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours and New South Wales looks to double the number of people being tested to contain the spread.

Local economic news

ANZ job ads December

Markets

Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.3 per cent to 30224, the S&P 500 shed almost 1.5 per cent to 3701 and the NASDAQ closed 1.5 per cent lower at 12698.

European markets closed higher, London’s FTSE gained 1.72 per cent, Paris added 0.7 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.1 per cent higher.

Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.9 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed almost 0.9 per cent higher.

Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.4 per cent fall.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 1.5 per cent higher at 6684.

Company news

IKE (ASX:IKE) has signed an agreement to acquire certain assets of Visual Globe’s AI platform for the global communications market and the electric utility market. Visual Globe is a US-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) and low code/no code software company that specializes in the automated analysis of power poles. IKE seeks to be the standard for collecting, analysing and managing pole and overhead asset information for electric utilities, communications companies, and their engineering service providers. Shares in Ikegps Group (ASX:IKE) last traded at $1.00.

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:30 AM was buying 76.66 US cents, 56.57 Pence Sterling, 79.07 Yen and 62.60 Euro cents.

Commodities

Gold has gained $51.50 to US$1947 an ounce.
Silver was up $1.02 to US$27.43 an ounce.
Oil was down $0.66 to US$47.02 a barrel.
Iron Ore futures suggest a 3.8 per cent rise.

Source: Finance News Network