US stocks open mixed on midterm elections day

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stocks opened mixed Tuesday on midterm elections day, as investors brace for what is widely expected to be a close race.

Americans headed to polling centers for the vote in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and 35 out of 100 seats in the Senate are being contested.

In the morning, the Dow Jones rose 50 points, or 0.15%, to 32,877 at 9.39 a.m. EDT.

The S&P 500, on the other hand, was flat at 3,806.

The Nasdaq shed five points, or 0.05%, to 10,559.

The VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, rose 0.9% to 24.57. The 10-year US Treasury yield, meanwhile, declined 0.5% to 4.193%.

The dollar index was up 0.16% to 110.29, still around its highest in 20 years, while the euro shed 0.1% to $1.0010 against the greenback.

Precious metals were on the rise, with gold adding 0.1% to $1,677 and silver increasing 0.7% to $20.95.

Oil prices were on the decline, with global oil benchmark Brent crude trading at $97.80 per barrel, down 0.1%. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was around $91.53 – down 0.3%.

Bitcoin and the cryptocurrencies were plummeting as well.

Price of the world’s largest crypto by market size fell to $19,574 at 1430GMT for a 5.3% daily loss, while the world’s biggest altcoin Ethereum dove 7.3% to $1,457.

The total value of the cryptocurrency market was down 5.2% to $973 billion, according to data from the digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.