- ASX 0.88% higher at 6900.6 points in morning trade.
- Zip Co soars following strong performance in US-based QuadPay.
- Apple?s talks with Hyundai-Kia on EV project on hold.
Tech stocks are in the green this morning as Zip Co leads today?s gains, soaring nearly 15%.
Afterpay is up nearly 3%, while Nextdc and EML Payments are also higher, each gaining 2.8% in morning trade.
The Australian market as a whole is up 0.88% at 6900.60 points in morning trade.
Bitcoin is trading at US$38,243.99 at 2pm AEDT, down 1.34% in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, digital currency exchange platform Coinbase is preparing to list on the Nasdaq. With an IPO rumoured at US$200/share, the listing has the potential to deliver a AUD$300M income to Westpac?s Reinventure Group, which invested in Coinbase in early 2015.
In tech news, Zip Co is surging today as investors flock to the digital payments platform. An update in late January sparked the buy frenzy after Zip reported a 103% increase in transaction volume to a record AUD$1.6BN for the December quarter, driven by its US-based QuadPay business. Zip Co?s share price is up 72% since the start of 2021.
In the headlines, Apple?s rumoured deal with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture electric vehicles is now said to be on hold. Hyundai said yesterday it had received "requests for cooperation" from a number of companies to produce self-driving EV vehicles, but no decisions had been made.
And Reddit?s 5-second regional Super Bowl ad appearing in New York, Chicago and San Francisco has referenced the recent GameStop saga. The ad featured a Reddit-like post titled "Wow this actually worked" above a blog post, reflecting Reddit?s role in the short-sell frenzy before declaring"?underdogs can accomplish just about anything" when united.