By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global equity markets rose on Monday, while U.S. Treasury yields dipped as investors were buoyed by a better-than-expected U.S. corporate earnings season that kicks into gear this week.
A large proportion of S&P 500 companies are due to report results, including technology heavyweights Facebook Apple Inc, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet, that have been the drivers of the market rally this year.
“The number one thing is that earnings are better than expected and what’s more interesting is that as we approach the end of the year, we’re going to see forward guidance being lifted, which would make the market multiple more reasonable,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital in New York.
The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 50 countries, was up 0.29%, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 0.07%.
In choppy trading on Monday, U.S. Treasury yields were lower as uncertainty about when the Federal Reserve would raise rates to curb rising inflation weighed on market sentiment.
The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield fell to 1.6352%. Last week, the 10-year yield hit 1.705%, the highest since mid-May.
The U.S. dollar rose from a one-month low on Monday, ahead of central bank meetings and economic data coming later this week, boosted by the prospect of a tighter U.S. monetary policy. The dollar index was up nearly 0.2 at 93.8150.
On Wall Street, all three main indexes were trading higher, led by consumer discretionary, industrials and technology stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 35,748.74, the S&P 500 gained 0.48% to 4,566.86 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.85% to 15,218.40.
Oil prices rose on Monday and reached multi-year highs, as tight global supply and strengthening fuel demand in the United States and beyond supported prices.
Brent crude futures gained 0.56% to $85.98 a barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 0.17% to $84.11 a barrel in early afternoon trading.
Gold prices rose about 1% on Monday, as a retreat in U.S. bond yields and persisting worries about inflation lifted the safe-haven asset ahead of major central bank meetings this week.
Spot gold gained 0.8% to $1,805.90 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled up 0.6% at $1,806.80 per ounce.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh; editing by David Evans)
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