Wall Street set to rally at open after FBI clears Clinton
Wall Street was poised to rally at the open on Monday, after a nine-day losing streak and a day before the U.S. presidential election, as the FBI said Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton would not face criminal charges related to her email practices.
The FBI set shockwaves through the presidential race late last month when it said it would review newly found emails sent by Clinton using a private server during her tenure as secretary of state.
The Bureau said on Sunday that its review gave it no reason to change its July finding that Clinton was not guilty of criminal wrongdoing.
The news lifted the cloud over Clinton's campaign, with at least three polls showing she was in the lead over Republican Donald Trump.
The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll showed 47 percent of 1,763 likely U.S. voters backing Clinton and 43 percent supporting Trump. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Investors have tended to see Clinton as a more status quo candidate and expect her victory to clear the path for a U.S. interest rate hike next month. On the other hand, Trump's stance on foreign policy, trade and immigration has unnerved the market.
Markets across the globe rose following the latest announcement from the FBI. The CBOE Volatility index , dubbed Wall Street's "fear gauge", was down nearly 12 percent, on pace for its biggest one-day fall since Sept. 21.
"Investors are reacting this morning to moving the email controversy to the sidelines, but still looking at a race that is too close to call, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Equity Capital Markets in New York.
"It's a market that is going to scrape back some losses we've seen over the last nine days and shift into stall mode at some point in time."
Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 234 points, or 1.31 percent at 8:09 a.m. ET, with 38,796 contracts changing hands.
S&P 500 e-minis were up 29 points, or 1.39 percent, with 248,888 contracts traded.
Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 73.25 points, or 1.57 percent, on volume of 31,923 contracts.
Up to Friday's close, U.S. stocks had fallen for nine straight days, their longest losing streak in more than 35 years, since the FBI said it was reviewing the newly found emails.
Risk assets were back in favor, with Brent crude futures rising for the first time in seven days, also helped by OPEC's commitment to stick to a deal to cut output. [O/R]
The dollar rose for the first time in five days, while safe-haven gold was set for its worst day in more than one month.
U.S.-listed iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF rose 3.8 percent. The ETF, known as "Trump ETF", is viewed as a barometer for Trump's chances of winning the election since his proposed policies are considered deeply negative for Mexico.
Of the 29 Dow components trading premarket on Monday, 28 were higher, while one was flat and one was untraded. Apple and Microsoft gained about 1.5 percent.
Biogen rose 2.9 percent to $138.12 after the drugmaker and Ionis Pharma announced positive interim trial data on their genetic muscular disorder drug. Ionis shares jumped 10.21 percent to $29.90.
NetSuite jumped 21 percent to $109 after more than half of its eligible shareholders backed Oracle's $9.3 billion-bid for the cloud storage company.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)