Home World Stocks in Asia-Pacific rise ahead of U.S. election, Australian central bank rate decision

SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific were higher on Tuesday morning as investors await the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate decision.

In morning trade, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia gained 1.26%, with shares of major miners such as BHP and Rio Tinto up more than 1% each.

South Korea’s Kospi also added 0.89% in early trade.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.31% higher.

Markets in Japan are closed on Tuesday for a holiday.

Investors will likely be focusing Tuesday on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate decision, set to be out at around 11:30 a.m. HK/SIN.

Ahead of that announcement, the Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7053, compared to levels below $0.702 seen yesterday.

The upcoming U.S. presidential election between incumbent Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will also weigh on investor sentiment.

Overnight on Wall Street, markets recovered from some of last week’s sharp losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6% to close 423.45 points higher, ending the day at 26,925.05. The S&P 500 added 1.2% to end the trading day at 3,310.24. The Nasdaq Composite closed 0.4% higher at 10,957.61.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 94.129 after its rise last week from levels below 93.5.

The Japanese yen traded at 104.72 per dollar after seeing levels above 104.8 against the greenback yesterday.

Source: CNBC

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