By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global shares edged higher in choppy trading on Thursday, snapping three straight sessions of losses, while U.S. Treasury yields and strong corporate results allayed worries over upcoming U.S. elections and interest rate cuts.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) soared nearly 22% after CEO Elon Musk provided on Wednesday a forecast for robust car sales growth next year that reassured investors.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished higher, with gains in consumer discretionary stocks and losses in materials and utilities equities. The Dow ended lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.33% to 42,374.36, the S&P 500 rose 0.21% to 5,809.86 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.76% to 18,415.49.
European shares gained 0.03%, ending a streak of three consecutive losses following positive results from companies including Renault (EPA:RENA), Unilever (LON:ULVR) and Hermes. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.2% to 846.07.
"Markets have traded lower over the past three or four days as a bit of a pause after a huge surge, with most of the equity indexes still trading rather near their all-time highs." said Michael Farr, president and chief executive at Farr, Miller & Washington.
"Perhaps the Fed isn't going to be lowering rates quite as extensively and quickly as (investors) hope. However, the real bottom line is the economy doing OK and earnings season is coming on with reasonable gains," Farr added.
Traders are pricing in a near-95% chance of a 25-basis-point cut at the Federal Reserve's November meeting, the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch Tool showed. Benchmark 10-year note yields were last down 3.4 basis points at 4.208% after reaching 4.26% on Wednesday, the highest since July 26.
The 10-year Treasury yield has been rising in recent weeks partly because both candidates in the U.S. presidential election are keen on spending money, which will widen the deficit, said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at SiebertNXT in New York.
"An increase in the deficit will certainly require more government debt and more government debt supply will certainly put upward pressure on yields, especially 10-year yields," Malek said.
The U.S. dollar slipped as data supported views for a slower pace of rate cuts by the Fed. The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment aid unexpectedly fell to 227,000 last week, suggesting a more resilient labor market.
The greenback weakened 0.6% against the Japanese yen to 151.84. The euro was up 0.44% at $1.0828, while the sterling strengthened 0.42% to $1.29874.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,fell 0.4% to 104.02.
Gold prices rose to near-record highs amid safe-haven demand from persistent geopolitical concerns and as investors sought safety from close U.S. elections on Nov. 5.
Spot gold rose 0.69% to $2,736.10 an ounce. U.S. gold futures settled 0.7% higher at $2,748.9.
Oil prices eased about 1% in volatile trade on reports the U.S. and Israel will try to restart talks on a possible ceasefire in Gaza.
Brent futures settled 0.8% lower at $74.38 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) slipped 0.8% to end at $70.19.
"The volatility from things like elections and geopolitical events around the globe tends to add to market volatility, but they don't tend to be significant over longer periods of time in terms of moving share prices," Farr said.