US Markets Amid Elections
Major US stocks traded higher on Wednesday’s early trading session as investors awaited the winner of the Presidential elections. Results of the elections are still being counted even as Joe Biden took an early lead.
According to Bloomberg News, it’s “possible that neither candidate reaches the 270 electoral votes needed to win by the end of election night.”
Earlier, Donald Trump claimed that he won the 2020 presidential election and stated he will reach out to the Supreme Court of the US to ensure that voting was done in accordance with the regulations. Joe Biden’s legal team said they were “ready for Trump’s threat.
As at 18:43:57 GMT+3, The Dow Jones was up by 1.74%, the Nasdaq 100 rose over 4% while the S&P 500 rose by over 2.5%.
Ant Group IPO
The decision to suspend the initial public offering of the fintech company Ant Group was made in order to “better safeguard capital market stability and protect investors’ interests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
According to media reports, the firm will have to “open itself up to greater regulatory scrutiny” to be able to list. The report cited two people familiar with the matter who also said that Ant will “have to use more of its own funds for loans it underwrites.”
China on Tuesday suspended the $37bn listing of Ant Group, which had been set to become the world’s largest IPO, one day after regulators had grilled Jack Ma, who founded the company according to the Financial Times.
Paypal Earnings
PayPal Inc. on Monday reported its revenues for the third quarter of 2020 with its net revenues jumping 25% to $5.46 billion. Operating income shot up 40% to $0.98 billion while net income was up 121% to $1.02 billion.
The total payment volume for the three month period rose 38% to $247 billion, with payment transactions growing 30% to $4 billion. Active customers grew by 15 Million to stand at 361 million.
“PayPal’s third quarter was one of the strongest in our history. Our growth reinforces the essential role we play in our customers’ daily lives during this pandemic. Going forward, we are investing to create the most compelling and expansive digital wallet that embraces all forms of digital currencies and payments, and operates seamlessly in both the physical and online worlds,” CEO Dan Schulman said.
