Bitcoin Defends $77K as Wall Street Braces for Midterm Gridlock

Bitcoin is clinging to the $77,000 zone at Tuesday's Wall Street open, holding its footing above local lows near $76,300 set on Friday. The world's largest crypto traded sideways-to-higher as tech stocks tried to shake off a rough start, with traders keeping one eye on the US midterm elections.

Apple was the early drag. Shares fell 4% in premarket trading after the company guided to gross margins of 45% to 46% for the December quarter, down from 47.9% in the prior period, blaming rising memory-chip costs. The stock then worked to claw back those losses as the session got going.

The election is the real wild card. Polls pointed to big Democratic gains, but Wolfe Research's head of US policy and politics, Tobin Marcus, told CNBC that investors are skeptical the final result will be as favorable to Democrats as the polling suggests. Wolfe's view: the polls are likely overstating Democratic strength.

Analysts at The Kobeissi Letter pinned Monday's market weakness on politics rather than AI spending jitters alone, arguing the market is pricing in a major shift in the US political landscape. A divided Congress, in that reading, means frequent legislative impasses and policy that's harder to predict. "Markets hate uncertainty," the firm wrote on X.

The damage showed up in the major averages Monday: the S&P 500 slipped 0.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.1%. Both were searching for direction Tuesday as election results rolled in.

Crude oil, meanwhile, shrugged off a US attack on Iran's Qeshm Island, a key military control outpost guarding the Strait of Hormuz route. WTI spiked to $98.80 a barrel before sliding below $94 on Tuesday, its lowest level since Oct. 15. The swing came days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump was open to resolving the US-Iran war diplomatically — comments that knocked 7% off WTI on Monday.