ASX to open higher as focus turns to rate decisions, US election

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start the week on a positive note as the focus turns to a busy week with rate decisions by central banks in the US, UK and Australia as well as the US presidential elections.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: up 36 points or 0.44% at 8,170 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.69%, S&P 500 up 0.41%, Nasdaq up 0.8%
• Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.83%, CAC 40 up 0.80%, DAX up 0.93%
• Spot gold: down 0.27% to USD2,736.53 ($4,138.23) per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent up 0.4% to USD73.10/barrel, US WTI up 0.33% to USD69.49/bbl
• AUD: down 0.03% at 65.58 US cents
• Bitcoin: down 0.97% to USD68,701.03

The context: On Friday, Wall Street’s main indices closed higher despite weak US October nonfarm payrolls data, which showed a much smaller-than-expected increase of 12,000 jobs, although the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%.

That was offset by solid gains for heavyweight Amazon after it reported strong retail sales, boosting profit above analyst estimates.