FX168 Financial News (Asia Pacific) News The price of gold rose to a record $2,789.74 on Wednesday (10/30), reflecting investors turning to this safe-haven asset as the US presidential election results approach. Bitcoin is also nearing an all-time high, and the market anticipates that the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump could be beneficial to cryptocurrencies.

The MSCI Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) stock index fell to a one-month low, or 1%.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Index rose 0.9%, benefiting from the weakening of the yen.

In other markets, European Stoxx 50 futures fell 0.42%, and wealth futures fell 0.45%, as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is about to announce what may be the biggest tax increase in 30 years.

US stock index futures rose slightly, boosted by Google's parent company Alphabet's higher-than-expected quarterly revenue. Nasdaq futures rose slightly by 0.06%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.07%. Meta and Microsoft earnings reports will be released later, and Apple and Amazon will be announced on Thursday.

Focus on the US

The price of Bitcoin is approaching an all-time high of $73,803.25. Currently trading around 72,480, it is expected to rise 13% this month. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, was boosted by a deal betting on Trump's possible re-election as president, although he still rivaled Vice President Kamala Harris in several polls.

Trump seems to have taken a more favorable stance on digital assets.

Julius Baer digital asset analyst Manuel Villegas said, “If the possibility of a big win for the Republican Party continues to increase, the strength of Bitcoin should continue because the Democratic Party is less likely to win big and may experience a general sell-off.”

On the economic side, investors are also paying attention to this week's US data, including the ADP National Employment Report and preliminary GDP for the third quarter. Non-farm payrolls data will also be released on Friday. These data may guide the Fed's policy outlook.

US job vacancies fell to a three-and-a-half-year low in September, data showed on Tuesday.

Khoon Goh, head of Asian research at ANZ Bank, said: “There is no doubt that US data is still important for this week.”

Goh said, “We saw the JOLTS data last night, which showed that the labor market continues to slow... Today we have ADP, the third-quarter GDP and personal consumption expenditure index, and then Friday's employment data. So it's still very important, especially for long-term returns and the impact on the dollar.”

The US dollar was not far from a three-month high against a basket of currencies on Wednesday, but recently the upward trend has stalled, giving the pound some relief above $1.30.

As Japan's ruling coalition lost a majority of seats in last weekend's parliamentary elections, the yen continued to feel pressure, and the yen fell to a low of nearly three months.

The Australian dollar was little changed after domestic inflation data was released and is currently down 0.26% to $0.6543.

On the commodities side, Brent crude futures rose 0.62% to $71.56 a barrel, and US WTI crude rose 0.76% to $67.72 a barrel.