U.S. stocks edge higher ahead of midterms, Fed; dollar falls

Wall Street stock indexes mostly rose on Monday, the eve of U.S. midterm elections to determine whether President Donald Trump`s Republican party retains control of congress and also ahead of a meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers.

Oil prices rose in choppy trading after five days of heavy losses as the United States imposed a range of sanctions aimed at curbing exports by Iran.

Iran sanctions boosted U.S. energy stocks which helped lift Wall Street. But the Nasdaq index <.ixic> fell, pressured by slumping shares of Apple and Amazon. Nikkei reported Apple has told two smartphone assemblers to halt plans for additional production lines dedicated to the lower-cost iPhone XR.

TRENDING NOW

Gurugram's Artemis Hospital plans to expand bed capacity to 800 by end of fiscal year

Animal box office collection Day 1: Ranbir Kapoor's movie earns Rs 116 crore

Kros files papers with Sebi to float Rs 500-crore IPO

COVID-19 Update: India records 88 new cases & 396 active cases

Telangana Election Result 2023: Final voter turnout at 71.34%

Tremors felt in Bengal as 5.6 magnitude earthquake hits Bangladesh

Tihar jail terminates 50 employees after biometric mismatch

Sam Altman's Q* Project and WorldCoin: Evaluating the potential threat to humanity

Light showers in parts of Rajasthan, more rain likely over weekend

GST collection rises to Rs 1.67,929 lakh crore in November, records highest growth rate of 15% Y-o-Y

Brigade Enterprises has announced the launch of Brigade Sanctuary

Brand Retention | 82% of existing Lava users likely to purchase next smartphone from same brand: Report

Coal output from captive, commercial mines rises 37% to 11.9 million tonnes in November

D-Street Newsmakers: Flair Writing, New India Assurance, Ashok Leyland among 10 stocks that hogged limelight today

FPIs may turn sellers at higher market levels, says Geojit Financial Services' V.K. Vijayakumar

Investors were also cautious ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. Opinion polls show the Democratic Party could win control of the House of Representatives after two years of wielding no practical political power in Washington, with Republicans likely to hold the Senate.

"What`s spooking the market is not Congress or Senate," said Gregory Perdon, co-chief investment officer at Arbuthnot Latham, "what`s spooking the market is the volatility of Trump," which might not be tempered by any change in congress.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.dji> rose 228.18 points, or 0.9 percent, to 25,499.01, the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 15.3 points, or 0.56 percent, to 2,738.36 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 35.24 points, or 0.48 percent, to 7,321.75.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index <.stoxx> lost 0.16 percent and MSCI`s gauge of stocks across the globe <.miwd00000pus> gained 0.10 percent.

Emerging market stocks rose 2.60 percent.

Oil prices settled little changed despite the sanctions on Iran. Washington granted a temporary exemption to eight countries allowing them to keep buying Iranian oil.

Brent crude futures settled at $73.17 per barrel, up 34 cents or 0.47 percent. U.S. crude oil futures settled at $63.10 per barrel, down 4 cents or 0.06 percent.

U.S. Treasury yields were slightly lower as investors covered short positions ahead of midterm elections and braced for $83 billion worth of government debt supply tied to the November refunding this week.

With the Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, investors were also concerned about prospects for tighter U.S. monetary policy after strong economic data.

Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 3/32 in price to yield 3.2027 percent, from 3.214 percent late on Friday.

The 30-year bond last rose 11/32 in price to yield 3.4353 percent, from 3.454 percent late on Friday.BREXIT HOPES BOOST STERLING

Sterling touched a two-week high against the U.S. dollar then pared gains to trade at $1.3048, up 0.60 percent. The British currency got a boost from a Sunday Times report that an all-U.K. customs deal will be written into an agreement governing Britain`s withdrawal from the European Union.

The U.S. dollar softened against a basket of major currencies as investors, cautious ahead of the elections, took profits after three straight weeks of gains.

The dollar index <.dxy> fell 0.24 percent, with the euro up 0.25 percent to $1.1414. Analysts cited pre-election caution after the greenback has rallied more than 7 percent from April lows.

"Much of Trump’s pro-growth, pro-markets agenda has arguably been enacted in the first two years of his presidency while he’s had the backing of both the House and Senate," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)