Futures gain as voting to elect next U.S. president begins

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal

(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday as voting began in a tightly contested U.S. election, with traders girding up for volatile trading over the next few sessions until a clear winner is declared.

Both Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris predicted victory on Monday (NASDAQ:MNDY ), while polls showed the race as extremely close with the final results expected to take days.

However, betting market odds, which many investors over the past few months have been relying to predict the outcome, showed the former president as the frontrunner.

Stock futures gained as U.S. Treasury yields eased slightly, while investors looked ahead to an interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve on Thursday. [MKTS/GLOB]

Equity markets were more settled than bond and currency markets where volatility measures rose sharply.

The VIX , Wall Street's "fear gauge", rose to 21.95, above its 30-day moving average of 19.65, but below the two-month high it hit last week.

"High-level US equity action has been hard to ascribe to politics alone as really there is no clear frontrunner in the presidential election, and full government control for either party is far from certain as well," said Scott Chronert, U.S. equity strategist at Citi.

Investors are also keeping an eye on Congressional elections to determine the balance of power in Washington. Many analysts predict a split government, which would limit the ability of the President to enact significant policy changes.

Rate-sensitive megacap growth stocks rose in premarket trading, with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA ) up 0.9% and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL ) adding 0.5%. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA ) gained 1.8%.

Stocks viewed as bets on a win for the former president rose in choppy trading, with Trump Media & Technology Group last up 9.7%, and software developer Phunware gaining 7.8%.

Dow E-minis were up 37 points, or 0.09%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 11.75 points, or 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 74.25 points, or 0.37%.

Boeing (NYSE:BA ) gained 1.6% as a prolonged and crippling strike ended after factory workers accepted a new contract offer.

Palantir (NYSE:PLTR ) soared 14.4% after the data analytics firm raised its annual revenue forecast for the third time on the back of demand for its AI platform.



Adding to the action-filled week, the Federal Reserve will start its November meeting on Wednesday. Markets have priced in a 25-basis point cut to the benchmark interest rate, but the outlook for future easing has grown uncertain as data points to a strong economy.

On the data docket, September international trade numbers and October S&P Global and ISM services PMI are expected, while a handful of companies would report quarterly earnings before the bell.

Source: Investing.com