Markets live: ASX set to open flat, Wall Street slips as Tesla and Alphabet report earnings

Good morning! I’ll be guiding you through the latest business and economic news.

The Australian share market is expected to start its day marginally higher, with ASX futures up 0.1% (practically flat).

It follows a weak performance on Wall Street as investors digested the latest financial results from some of America’s largest companies.

Tesla reported a surprise lift in revenue after US stock markets closed, as it delivered more electric vehicles than analysts had expected, helped by price cuts and incentives.

During the US trading session, Tesla’s share price dropped 2%, and has since plunged more than 6% in after-hours trade.

Meanwhile, Google’s parent company Alphabet released better-than-expected revenue estimates — driven by a rise in digital advertising sales and healthy demand for its cloud computing services.

Alphabet’s share price finished trading practically flat, and has dropped 1.7% in post-market trading.

On oil markets, Brent crude futures fell 1.8% to $US80.92 a barrel.

Spot gold prices rose 0.3% at $US2,405 an ounce.

Bitcoin, which had risen on bets that a potential Trump administration would take a light-touch approach to cryptocurrency regulation, fell 2.2% at $US66,677.

The Australian dollar slipped 0.5% to 66.1 US cents.