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The Lottery Corporation enjoyed a day in the green after announcing at its AGM that sales between July and October had increased by 11 per cent. The group said that it expects to pay its first dividend in March 2023 after the recent $160 million Powerball boosted its slow start to the financial year. Its shares were up 3.95 per cent to $4.47 by end of trading on Tuesday.

Jun Bei Liu, a portfolio analyst at Tribeca, said that the success of the Lottery Corporation comes despite analysts anticipating stocks to swing the other way.

“That [Lottery Corporation] gave a very positive update. So far, this financial year, earning revenue is tracking up, when most analysts were expecting a flattish or negative number since the lottery was very strong the year before.”

Overall, Liu said that there was “reasonable strength across most of the companies except when they have earnings updates where the share price has reacted quite aggressively towards whichever way it is. If it’s disappointing, shares will be sold off, and if it was good share prices rallied.”

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 1 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.3 per cent and the Nasdaq composite added 0.9 per cent.

Analysts say many investors seem to be making bets that Republicans will take control of at least one house of Congress. With a divided government, gridlock is more likely than big, sweeping policy changes that could upend tax and spending plans. And historically, when a Democratic White House has shared power with a split or Republican Congress, stocks have seen stronger gains than usual.

“The conventional wisdom that the stock market likes political gridlock is supported by the historical data in this instance,” according to Lori Calvasina, head of US equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

Meanwhile, Wall Street is looking ahead to a report scheduled for Thursday, when the US government will show how bad inflation was across the country last month. And that will influence what’s been the main driver on Wall Street this year, much more than politics: what the Federal Reserve does on interest rates.

Tweet of the day:

Quote of the day:

“Data will be publish in 24 hours. P.S I recommend to sell Medibank stocks,” said the alleged hacker of the Medibank data following the news that the private health insurer would not pay the ransom.

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