Wall Street opens slightly higher with attention on the legislative elections in the US

The NYSE It opened slightly higher on Tuesday, the day of legislative elections in the United States, with the market anticipating a change of balance in Congress in favor of the Republicans.

The index Dow Jones thus earned 0.31%, the technological Nasdaq 0.10% and the S&P 500 a marginal 0.05% minutes after opening.

For its part, the dollar was trading stable as part of the bets on the reopening of China that had been weighing on the greenback faded, while operators closely followed the mid-term elections in the United States.

A conclusive result could take days, but the forecasts point to a Republican victory, at least in the House of Representatives and, consequently, to a probable stalemate in Congress.

Some analysts say the outcome could be positive for bonds and negative for the dollar if it leads to less fiscal stimulus and bipartisan gridlock over raising the debt limit. The aggressive pace of interest rate increases in the United States has caused Treasury yields to rise and pushed the dollar to multi-year highs against most of its peers, although there is growing speculation about that this trend is coming to an end.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, traded at 110.19 units, down from the 113.5 level in the middle of last week. Another factor that has slowed the dollar in recent days was speculation that China could relax aspects of its dynamic policy of zero Covid-19.

Among cryptocurrencies, the bitcoin sank more than 6% to $19,412 and the ether fell sharply in moves that traders said were related to concerns around brokerage FTX, after rival Binance said it would liquidate holdings of the native FTX token.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried said the company is doing “well” and the concerns are based on “false rumours”. FTX had no immediate comment when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday.

The FTX token – which grants holders discounts on the firm’s trading fees – plunged more than 30% to $15.41, its lowest since early 2021. The token, known as FTT, is the 30th coin largest cryptocurrency, worth $2 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Figures from analytics firm Nansen showed a one-day net outflow from FTX of some $630 million, suggesting that account holders are also taking their money out.