Stocks edge lower as markets remain cautious, with gold prices at new highs

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK, (Reuters) -Global equity markets traded lower on Monday as investors hedged their positions amid rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over the U.S. presidential election, even as gold prices reach new highs.

The Israeli military is continuing its attacks against Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, with hundreds of Beirut residents fleeing their homes late on Sunday as explosions rocked the Lebanese capital. Gold prices surged to a record high on Monday and were up 0.07% to $2,722.23 an ounce.

All three main Wall Street indexes were trading lower, with defensive stocks, including real estate and healthcare stocks, among the leading drags on the benchmark S&P 500 index.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.74% to 42,956.04, the S&P 500 fell 0.18% to 5,841.10 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.16% to 18,459.62

The European shares index lost 0.66%, while MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe fell 0.55%. Overnight in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.7% lower.

“Between the combination of escalating or still-high Middle East tensions, and we’re only a handful of days away from the (Nov. 5 U.S. election), it could be that the market is getting nervous ahead of that and people are squaring some of their positions,” said Wasif Latif, president and chief investment officer at Sarmaya Partners.

Oil prices gained following a more than 7% drop last week. Brent crude futures were last up 1.57% at $74.21 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 2% to $70.65.

Markets are pricing in a 86.7% chance for a cut of 25 basis points (bps) at the Fed’s November meeting, with an 13.3% chance of the central bank holding rates steady, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 10.3 basis points to 4.178%.

The dollar climbed, buoyed by a rise in U.S. bond yields. The euro was down 0.43% at $1.0818, while the pound weakened 0.51% to $1.2982. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.66% to 150.5.

The European Central Bank (ECB) last week cut rates for the third time this year. Data on Monday showed German producer prices fell more than expected in September.

The dollar index, which tracks its performance against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,rose 0.45% to 103.92.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tomasz Janowski)

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