Markets calm ahead of knife-edge US election

World stocks rose and US Treasury yields rebounded on Tuesday while an index of market volatility retreated, as markets awaited early indications of the outcome of a knife-edge US election, with only currency markets showing some jitters.
Outperforming its European peers, the Iseq index advanced by 1.3 per cent, led higher by the Irish banks.
AIB surged 6.4 per cent to €5.40 after the lender upgraded its loan growth guidance for the year to between 5 and 6 per cent. In a trading update for the nine-month period to September 2024, the bank said total income rose 7 per cent over the first nine months of the year, driven by a 12 per cent rise in net interest income.
Bank of Ireland also moved 2.4 per cent higher to close at €8.95 per share.
Ryanair, meanwhile, advanced by 2.7 per cent to €18.50 while Kingspan dropped 3 per cent to €77.05 per share after reporting a 4 per cent decline in sales before currency movement and acquisitions.
Despite edging higher in early trading, both the benchmark FTSE 100 and the mid-cap FTSE 250 were essentially flat on the session.
Among individual stocks, Schroders, slumped 13.7 per cent, falling to the bottoms of the FTSE 100 after the fund manager reported worse-than-expected third quarter outflows.
AstraZeneca shares recorded their biggest one-day drop since March 2020 on Tuesday, falling 8.4 per cent, following a report that dozens of senior executives at its China unit could be implicated in the largest insurance fraud case in the country’s pharma sector in years.
TP ICAP gained 4.6 per cent after the inter-dealer broker reported a 10 per cent increase in its third-quarter revenue.
The session was a relatively positive one for the main UK banks with HSBC and Barclays up 0.6 and 0.7 per cent while Lloyds was flat.
Oil majors BP and Shell were up by 0.8 per cent and 0.5 per cent with crude prices edging higher in anticipation of the US election.
European shares were little changed with cross-Continental Stoxx 600 up just 0.04 per cent while the blue-chip Stoxx 50 inched 0.4 per cent higher.
Spanish and Italian banks moved slightly higher with Intesa Sanpaolo up 0.8 per cent while BBVA and Santander advanced by 0.4 per cent each.
Energy stocks were mixed as commodity markets jittered in advance of the US election. Italian utility Enel was down by 0.3 per cent while Iberdrola was up by 0.3 per cent and France’s TotalEnergies advanced by 0.4 per cent.
Technology stocks propelled US equities as voting got under way in a presidential race that will have big consequences for the future of economic policy.
The S&P 500 added 0.9 per cent, with Palantir Technologies surging 22 per cent on record profit and high demand for its artificial intelligence software. An index of Magnificent Seven tech stocks also climbed, boosted by strong gains in Tesla and Nvidia.
As treasury yields eased from recent highs, rate-sensitive megacap growth stocks gained with Meta Platforms adding 1.8. per cent
Shares of Boeing, which had risen before the bell following the end of a prolonged workers’ strike, edged lower in volatile trading.
Stocks viewed as bets on an election win for Donald Trump jumped, with Trump Media & Technology Group adding 16 per cent, while prison operator Geo Group gained 5.8 per cent. – Additional reporting: Bloomberg, Reuters