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Equities

Global markets were mixed amid cautious sentiment as investors assessed major corporate earnings releases, including by Alphabet later today, and key U.S. jobs data this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.42 per cent at the open to 42,209.66, the S&P 500 dropped 0.13 per cent to 5,816.18, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.05 per cent to 18,576.08 at the bell.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index opened 0.1 per cent lower at 24,540.54, due to broader losses led by utility shares.

On Wall Street, markets are watching earnings from Alphabet Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., McDonald’s Corp., Pfizer Inc., Visa Inc., Paypal Holdings Inc., Chubb Ltd. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.

In Canada, investors are getting results from First Capital REIT, Gibson Energy Inc. and New Gold Inc.

“Together, the US Big Tech companies are expected to announce around 18% growth in profit and – hopefully for Nvidia – massive increase to their AI spending,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, wrote in a note. “Nvidia will not be reporting its results for another month, but AMD results are also due today.”

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.06 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.08 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.25 per cent and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.33 per cent.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.77 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.49 per cent.

Commodities

Oil prices were on the rise after falling yesterday as a U.S. plan to buy oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) provided some support though wider concerns about weaker future demand growth exerted pressure.

Brent crude futures climbed 1.32 per cent to US$72.36 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 1.45 per cent to US$68.36 a barrel.

“Unless there is another Iranian counter to the counterattack - recurring - the run up to the U.S. vote next week will likely see Israel limit its operations to proxies rather than Iran itself,” said John Evans, an analyst at oil broker PVM.

In other commodities, spot gold was up 0.3 per cent to US$2,750.87. U.S. gold futures gained 0.3 per cent to US$2,763.40.

Currencies and bonds

The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart.

Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was flat in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 0.17 per cent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.21 per cent and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.19 per cent.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the greenback against a group of currencies, rose 0.3 per cent to 104.63.

The euro declined 0.31 per cent to US$1.0780. The British pound advanced 0.03 per cent to US$1.2977.

In bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year note was last up at 4.327 per cent ahead of the North American opening bell.

Other corporate news

HSBC Holdings beat third-quarter profit expectations thanks to rising wealth and wholesale banking revenue, but kept investors waiting for more detail on how a sweeping overhaul of its structure will deliver cost savings.

Economic news

Japan jobless rate

Germany consumer confidence

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. goods trade deficit for September.

(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. wholesale and retail inventories for September.

(9 a.m. ET) U.S. S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index for August. Estimate is a 0.2-per-cent rise from July and up 5.0 per cent year-over-year.

(9 a.m. ET) U.S. FHFA House Price Index for August. Estimate is a month-over-month increase of 0.2 per cent and 3.9-per-cent gain year-over-year.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index for October.

(10 a.m. ET) U.S. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for September.

(3:30 p.m. ET) Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem and senior deputy Carolyn Rogers appear before the House Standing Committee on Finance.

With Reuters and The Canadian Press

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