Live: US midterms in sharp focus, oil price eases

Good morning and welcome to the ABC's business blog.

Wall Street's fear index, the VIX, shed 2 per cent overnight as some confidence re-emerged in the market.

A falling oil price seems to be helping on that front.

In terms of stocks, there looks to have been some rotation out of industrial stocks and into the big tech names.

Apple was the exception there, falling almost 2% after disappointing iPad sales results in the fiscal fourth-quarter missed the Street's estimates.

Let's get going and look to US equities, the midterms, oil price and the ASX open of trade.