Stocks gain as key US earnings in focus, US yields rise
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global stock indexes mostly rose on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq scoring a record closing high ahead of key earnings reports this week, while Treasury yields hit multimonth highs early as the U.S. presidential election was just a week away.
After the closing bell, shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL ) were up more than 5% as the Google parent topped third-quarter revenue expectations and noted an AI-driven surge in its cloud business. The stock ended the regular session up 1.8%.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT ) are expected to report on Wednesday, followed by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL ) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN ) on Thursday.
Stocks have seen strong gains this year, partly due to optimism over technology companies and artificial intelligence.
The Nov. 5 U.S. election has entered its final stretch, with opinion polls still too close to call a winner in the race between Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, and former Republican President Donald Trump.
"It wouldn't be a surprise to see further de-risking in the short-term, and some turbulent trade for now, ahead of Election Day next Tuesday," said Michael Brown, a senior research strategist at Pepperstone.
The U.S. Labor Department's JOLTS survey showed job openings were at 7.44 million in September, compared with estimates of 8 million, according to a Reuters poll of economists. Investors are keen to see Friday's U.S. jobs report for October.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154.52 points, or 0.36%, to 42,233.05, the S&P 500 rose 9.40 points, or 0.16%, to 5,832.92 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 145.56 points, or 0.78%, to 18,712.75.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.15 point, or 0.02%, to 848.08. The STOXX 600 index fell 0.57%.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields hit a nearly four-month high on investor wariness to buy the debt before next week's U.S. elections, but dipped later in the day after a strong seven-year note auction.
U.S. 10-year yields were last down 0.6 basis point at 4.272%.
The yen found its footing following Monday's dip to a three-month low as the coalition government's drubbing in Japan in weekend elections clouded the outlook for Japanese fiscal and monetary policies.
The dollar was last up 0.12% on the day at 153.47 yen. The Bank of Japan announces its monetary policy decision on Thursday, and is widely expected to leave rates unchanged.
A period of wrangling to secure a coalition in Japan is likely after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito lost their majority in parliament, a result that potentially means bigger fiscal spending and complicates the BOJ's push to normalize interest rates.
The head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People said on Tuesday that the central bank should avoid making big changes in its ultra-loose monetary policy because real wage growth remains at a standstill.
The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.01% to 104.27, with the euro down 0.03% at $1.0815.
Oil prices closed slightly lower after a more than 6% drop in the previous session. Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on social media platform X, citing two sources, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a meeting for a diplomatic solution to the war in Lebanon.
Brent crude futures fell 30 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $71.12 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude shed 17 cents, or 0.3%, to $67.21 a barrel.
Source: Investing.com
