Asian stocks fall as investors await US election results

Stocks traded lower in Asia on Wednesday and currency markets remained steady as investors monitored the U.S. election results for signs of major disruption.

Bitcoin fell 3 percent to $18,139 in a broad selloff of crypto assets following the near collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, due to a liquidity crisis. Bitcoin fell as much as 17 percent on Tuesday, while smaller coins suffered steeper losses.

In China, the CSI 300 index of stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 0.75 percent, while Japan's Topix fell 0.4 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.5 percent.

The smaller moves in Asian stocks came as polls closed in many U.S. states and midterm election results trickled out across the country.

The earliest results included Republican gubernatorial candidates winning victories in Florida and Arkansas, while governorships in Maryland and Massachusetts went to Democrats.

Analysts said markets had already priced in Republican majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate.

“Forecast markets – and probably financial markets – expect a Republican majority in both chambers,” said Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs.

“Financial markets' reaction to a Republican victory should be muted as the House outcome is already widely expected,” Hatzius said, adding that a Democratic victory in both the House and Senate “would likely weigh on stocks as market participants could expect additional corporate tax increases.”

Futures markets tipped the benchmark S&P 500 index to open flat later in the day, while the FTSE 100 was expected to lose 0.3 percent.

Over the last 18 midterm election cycles, the S&P 500 has risen about 5 percent on average in the year before Election Day but more than 15 percent in the 12 months afterward, according to analysts at Oxford Economics.

In foreign exchange markets, the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of international peers, rose 0.2 percent, while the euro fell 0.1 percent to $1.0064.

Additional reporting by Jaren Kerr in New York