By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global stock indexes rose on Monday as investors awaited earnings reports this week from several of the biggest U.S. tech-related companies, while oil prices fell sharply after Israel’s retaliatory strike against Iran at the weekend bypassed oil and nuclear facilities.
The Japanese yen reached a three-month low against the dollar after an election in Japan thrust the country into political turmoil.
Against the yen, the dollar rose by as much as 1% to a high of 153.88, the yen’s weakest level since late July. The dollar was last up 0.49% at 153.05.
U.S. earnings season is in full swing, with a long list of names due to report this week including five of the biggest U.S. companies: Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Facebook owner Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), Apple (NASDAQ:) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:).
This week also brings the U.S. jobs report for October on Friday, while investors are keeping a close eye on political news with the U.S. presidential election just over a week away.
Employers are expected to have added 123,000 jobs during October, while the unemployment rate is likely to stay steady at 4.1%, according to economists polled by Reuters.,
The election for U.S. president is expected to be close. Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, was leading Republican Donald Trump nationally by a marginal 46% to 43%, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. U.S. voters head to the polls Nov. 5.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields hit a three-month high ahead of this week’s data and election. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes was last up 4 basis points at 4.272%, from 4.232% late on Friday.
“It’s the calm before the storm,” said Subadra Rajappa, head of U.S. rates strategy at Societe Generale (OTC:) in New York. “A lot of investors are a little bit more cautious heading into the elections.”
Energy shares eased along with oil prices, with the energy sector down more than 1%. fell 5.73% to $67.67 a barrel and fell to $71.81 per barrel, down 5.58% on the day.
But the three major U.S. stock indexes were higher.
The rose 284.43 points, or 0.68%, to 42,399.36, the S&P 500 rose 23.94 points, or 0.41%, to 5,832.06 and the rose 99.81 points, or 0.54%, to 18,617.83.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 3.38 points, or 0.40%, to 848.87. The index rose 0.51%.
In Japan, Tokyo’s closed up 1.8%, after initially dipping following the election result.
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost its parliamentary majority.
The party, with junior coalition partner Komeito, won 215 lower-house seats in Sunday’s election, public broadcaster NHK reported, well short of the 233 needed for a majority.
In other currencies, the , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.13% to 104.24, and the euro was up 0.21% at $1.0816.
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