European Shares Poised To Open Mixed

(RTTNews) - European stocks are likely to open on a mixed note Monday as investors gear up for the highly anticipated U.S. presidential election on Tuesday and the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision on Thursday.

A flurry of new polls show that Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump remain poised for a photo finish in this week's presidential election.

Voters will determine whether the next president enters office with a friendly Congress or a hostile one.

If control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate is divided, it would likely mean a maintaining of the status quo.

The U.S. Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision on Thursday, followed by Fed. Chair Jerome Powell's press conference.

Markets expect the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates by 25 bps amid economic contradictions, following a supersize 50 basis point move in September.

Asian stocks were seeing modest gains in cautious trading, with Japanese markets closed for a holiday.

The dollar fell sharply from recent highs after Friday's weaker-than-expected nonfarm payrolls data signaled a cooling labor market.

A slew of U.S. economic data, including reports on factory orders, service sector activity and consumer sentiment may garner investor attention as the week progresses. Gold edged up slightly in Asian trade after Iran threatened to use powerful warheads and other weapons against Israel in its next attack in the coming days.

Oil prices were up nearly 2 percent as OPEC+ agreed to delay a planned December oil output increase by one month.

U.S. stocks ended firmly in positive territory on Friday as upbeat earnings news from Amazon and Intel helped investors look past a disappointing jobs report.

Data showed the U.S. economy added just 12,000 jobs in October, marking the weakest level of jobs creation since December 2020 after a downwardly revised 223,000 jobs in September, impacted by hurricanes and labor strikes. The jobless rate held at 4.1 percent, in line with estimates.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.8 percent, the Dow gained 0.7 percent and the S&P 500 added 0.4 percent.

European stocks closed higher on Friday after some fairly strong corporate earnings announcements.

The pan European STOXX 600 rallied 1.1 percent. The German DAX climbed 0.9 percent while France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both surged around 0.8 percent.