The Australian sharemarket is higher in the last hour of trading, the Aussie dollar has weakened and bitcoin has soared as early returns from the polls in the US suggest a likely victory for Donald Trump.
The S&P/ASX 200 traded up 44.5 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 8176.30 as of 3.08pm (AEDT). It was up as much as 1 per cent in early afternoon as the former president’s odds of election to the White House started to climb on betting markets and in forecasts including that of the New York Times, which now sees an 89 per cent chance of a Trump victory.
Pedestrians in Hong Kong walk past an electronic screen displaying the Hang Seng Index on the US presidential election day.Credit: AP
The Australian dollar was 1.75 per cent lower at US65.22¢ as the greenback advanced. Bitcoin jumped more than 9 per cent to $US74,279 ($112,235).
With the Australian sharemarket and its Asian counterparts among the first to react to the widening election lead for Trump, traders on Wall Street are gearing up for a rally when the US market opens. Futures for the S&P 500 were up about 1.2 per cent, same as those for the tech-heavy Nasdaq exchange, as of 3pm (AEDT).
Trump Media & Technology shares jumped more than 25 per cent in after-hours trade before trimming some of their gains.
Tesla also climbed as CEO Elon Musk’s support for Trump means a Republican victory can be seen as a positive for the electric carmaker.
Wires and The Age/Sydney Morning Herald business desk.
