Tom Tillotson takes the five ballots out of the ballot box to count at the Hale House at the historic Balsams Resort during midnight voting as part of the first ballots cast in the United States Presidential Election in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire on November 3, 2020.
joseph prezioso/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
European stocks advanced Tuesday for a second day, gaining ground as American voters head to the polls to choose the leader of the world’s largest economy.
Up 1.6% on Monday, the Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
rose 1.2%.
The German DAX
DAX,
the French CAC 40
PX1,
and the U.K. FTSE 100
UKX,
each rose over 1%.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
YM00,
rose 309 points, after a 423-point gain for the blue chips
DJIA,
on Monday. Besides election positioning, manufacturing surveys from China, the eurozone and the U.S. all surpassed expectations. The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates and announced it was buying A$100 billion of bonds.
But the focus is on the election. Former Vice President Joe Biden has a polling lead against President Donald Trump, and the Democrats are expected to take control of the U.S. Senate in a so-called blue wave. Traders will be looking not just to see who wins but also whether the result is readily apparent.
“A clear Biden win, where his party retains control of the House and wins the Senate, seems like the most positive outcome for markets. Such a result will open the doors to a round of large-scale fiscal stimulus that could nurse some of the damage COVID-19 has inflicted on the U.S. economy. Should Biden win with Republicans retaining the Senate, this may reduce the odds of a larger fiscal stimulus and could be less positive for global risk sentiment,” said Lukman Otunuga, senior research analyst at FXTM.
Otunuga said a Trump victory could derail stimulus plans but the policy continuity would give a lift to stock prices over the medium term.
Shares of BNP Paribas
BNP,
rallied 5% as the French bank reported a stronger-than-forecast third-quarter profit, with revenue, costs and provisions all beating estimates.
BP
BP,
and Royal Dutch Shell
RDSA,
gained ground, with Shell upgraded to overweight and BP upgraded to neutral by Morgan Stanley.
