ASX to open higher after election day rally on Wall Street

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start higher, as local investors take cues from Wall Street where gains for tech stocks and solid economic data resulted in a broad-based rally on election day.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: up 50 points or 0.61% at 8,197 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.91%, S&P 500 up 1.04%, Nasdaq up 1.28%
• Europe: FTSE 100 down 0.14%, CAC 40 up 0.48%, DAX up 0.57%
• Spot gold: up 0.18% to USD2,741.63 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent up 0.76% to USD75.65/barrel, US WTI up 0.92% to USD72.13/bbl
• AUD: up 0.78% at 66.37 US cents
• Bitcoin: up 2.37% to USD69,512.58

The context: The US non-manufacturing purchasing managers index, a gauge of the services sector, accelerated to 56.0 last month, its highest since August 2022, and well above the 53.8 expected by economists, signaling a solid economy.

Investors are also keeping an eye on the US presidential election where betting markets favour a win for Republican Donald Trump, as well as Congressional elections that will determine the balance of power in Washington.