It is finally November 3, the day when the United States will elect its next President. Though mail-in votes have been traveling through the country for weeks, today is the time when those votes will be counted, together with any ballot cast in person today.
Due to 95 million Americans opting to vote early, a huge percentage of which via mail-in ballots to avoid crowds on election day (which are high-risk events due to the coronavirus pandemic), it is highly likely that there will be no conclusive results tonight. It may take a few days for all the votes to be counted, and even then either of the two presidential candidates can request a recount of the vote in contested areas.
All polls currently point to a Biden-Harris win, as well as a Democratic victory in the fight for 35 seats in the Senate and 435 seats in the House. Nevertheless, the markets are a bit anxious still, because the 2016 polls proved to be a poor predictor of the actual election outcome.
Still, US stock indices today are making gains on the hopes of a confident Democrat victory in the election. It is widely believed that if the Democrats dominate the House, Senate, and the White House, they will provide more fiscal stimulus for the economy.
In other news, today the Reserve Bank of Australia loosened its monetary policy. The central bank cut interest rates from 0.25% down to 0.10%, and also launched an asset purchasing program worth 100 billion AUD to keep the Australian economy afloat.
Meanwhile, there is a modest recovery going on in the oil market due to hopes that OPEC+ members will hold off on the planned increase in oil production. Due to the worsening of the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for oil will likely be under pressure for months, so an increase in supply now will only weaken crude oil prices.
The Brent crude managed to climb to $40.22, while the WTI brand reached $38.08 per barrel today.
