Stocks down, US yields higher as traders weigh election uncertainty
· CNA · JoinNEW YORK :A gauge of global shares was lower on Tuesday, on track for the second consecutive day of losses, with U.S. yields higher as markets weighed uncertainty ahead of the U.S. election as well as the outlook on interest rate cuts.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris held a marginal 46 per cent to 43 per cent lead over Republican former President Donald Trump, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, as both candidates vie to capture swing states ahead of Nov. 5.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow were down, driven partly by losses in industrials, materials, and financial stocks. The Nasdaq was flat in choppy trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.41 per cent to 42,757.37, the S&P 500 fell 0.33 per cent to 5,834.91 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.07 per cent to 18,526.02.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was also down 0.17 per cent. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 0.47 per cent to 849.55.
"You have an election coming where both candidates are looking to spend more and it's not good for deficits," said Eric Beyrich, co-chief investment officer at Sound Income Strategies in New York. "It's also an environment where people don't expect the kind of interest rate cut as they did before."
The odds that the Fed will deliver a quarter-point cut at its Nov. 7 meeting are at 92 per cent, while the chances of no rate cut is at 8 per cent, according to CME's FedWatch tool. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields rose 0.2 per cent bps to 4.184 per cent.
(Reporting Chibuike Oguh in New York; Editing by Alison Williams)
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