JSE faces lower Asian markets on Friday
The JSE faces subdued Asian markets on Friday morning, with activity likely to be a little muted ahead of the US national election next week.
The US election on November 3 will determine who is control of the executive and legislative arms of the world’s largest economy, and therefore who controls the levers that will determine a next round of Covid-19 fiscal stimulus.
Asian markets were mostly a little lower in morning trade, with the Shanghai Composite down 0.1% and Japan’s Nikkei 0.72%.
Things are likely to settle down a bit after volatility due to concern over rising Covid-19 numbers, while most derisking ahead of the US election is likely to have already happened, said Axi chief global markets strategist Stephen Innes in a note.
“But since we are firmly in the pre-election window and lacking any meaningful equity market institutional liquidity, I suspect stock investors will tread very carefully today,” said Innes.
Tencent, which gives direction to the JSE, had risen 0.58%.
Gold was up 0.52% to $1,876.96/oz while platinum had gained 1.49% to $859.76. Brent crude was 0.83% higher at $37.88 a dollar, having slumped more than 7% over the past two sessions.
Mobile operator MTN is due to report on its results for the nine-months to end-September later, with some of its operations in Africa recently reporting it has seen a surge in demand for data services amid the pandemic.
International focus remains on Covid-19 numbers, and news flow regarding the US election.
Source: businesslive.co.za
