Yahoo Finance ASX to leap at open as Wall Street hits record highs
Good morning.
Here’s Yahoo Finance’s Tuesday morning wrap:
ASX: The Australian share market is expected to have a strong start to the day after Wall Street rallied again, this time because of optimism over a Covid-19 vaccine that was closer to being released to the population.
Successful late-stage clinical trials of a vaccine developed by New York-based pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and BioNTech revealed the vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective.
Wall Street: At its peak overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1,273.09 points, or 4.49 per cent, and the S&P 500 was up 120.44 points, or 3.43 per cent. The S&P energy index was on course for its best day since April.
JobSeeker has been reportedly extended. It’s great news for thousands of Australians on welfare, who were no doubt wondering if the rate would be dropped back down to the base rate of $40 a day come the end of December. According to The Australian, the new rate could be $150, and would be extended until March next year. Here’s more on that.
Trump was never going to leave quietly. He announced on Twitter that he was “terminating” his Defence Secretary Mark Esper, and that Christopher Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will take over as acting secretary of defence.
...Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020
But it’s highly unlikely the Senate would confirm a new nominee before Trump leaves office in January. Read more here.
An ABC’s Four Corners program aired last night revealed some pretty shocking behaviour by MPs in the Canberra bubble. Among them is Attorney-General Christian Porter, who was reportedly seen drinking too much and “in the company of young women” at a Canberra bar. But he has “categorically rejected” the program’s depictions.
Former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller, who was at the same bar with her former boss and then-lover, coalition minister Alan Tudge, witnessed the interaction and said Minister Porter's behaviour towards one woman was "clearly intimate". Here’s a bit more on that.
Aussie workers lost 167 hours of work between March and October, which cost the economy $47 billion, according to new ANU analysis. Theroduction loss for every employed worker was $5885, or $2379 for those without a job, said study co-lead Professor Nicholas Biddle.
Have a great day.
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