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ASX to fall as Australia ranks 6th on power list

Australian navy ships line the water at Woolloomooloo and the ASX board.
The ASX is set to slip at the open as Australia ranks 6th on the Asia Pacific power list. (Source: Getty)

ASX: The local market is expected to open lower this morning after Wall Street fell again on Friday.

This comes as uncertainty around the Omicron variant continues to spook investors.

Wall St: Wall Street's major indexes closed lower on Friday, with the Nasdaq leading the declines.

Investors are preparing for the Federal Reserve to ease support while they grapple with uncertainty around the Omicron coronavirus variant.

BTC: Bitcoin slipped below US$50,000 in a dramatic sell-off over the weekend. Bitcoin was sitting around $57,000 on Friday, and fell around 14 per cent to $45,000 on Saturday evening.

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There are a number of reasons for the sell-off - watch the video below to find out more.

Power index: Australia has been ranked sixth in the The Lowy Institute Power Index.

Australia dropped 1.6 points from last year to have 30.8 points overall out of 100 but held its rankings across all eight measures of power in 2021.

It is classed as a "middle power", along with 15 other countries behind top ranked "super powers" United States (82.2pts) and China (74.6pts).

Aussie exodus: Australians are deserting Melbourne and Sydney in droves and moving to Brisbane or Perth, according to an online removalist-booking company.

Based on the site's tens of thousands of inquiries each month, Melbourne saw net annual migration fall 54 per cent and Sydney saw migration fall 64 per cent.

Under the hammer: Australia's capital cities have seen one of the busiest property auction weeks on record, but the clearance rate slipped below 70 per cent.

CoreLogic figures for the first week of December show 4,136 homes went under the hammer - the second-busiest week since it began tracking the market in 2008.

Regional funding: An almost $100 million health services boost is headed for regional and rural NSW.

The funding package will secure support for frontline workers and is also part of a record infrastructure investment for the sector in the bush, Premier Dominic Perrottet said.

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