US stock prices rose yesterday following the presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but losses in the oil market and anxiety about the fortune of Deutsche Bank limited Wall Street’s advance.
Oil prices gave back some of Monday’s gains on fizzling hopes of an agreement among major producers to freeze output in a bid to deal with the current global oversupply.
A stronger dollar in the aftermath of the first Clinton-Trump debate helped send gold prices lower.
US and German government bond yields fell on safe-haven demand amid worries about Deutsche Bank and weaker oil prices.
Investors have fretted over Germany’s largest lender in the wake of a massive $14-billion demand from the US Department of Justice to settle claims on bad mortgage-backed securities.
Deutsche Bank wasn’t the only European banks in the firing line. Shares in UK-based Standard Chartered fell over three per cent on reports that it was facing a US probe over an Indonesian investment.
Overseas equity markets initially rose as betting markets suggested Democrat Clinton won the first debate over Republican Trump, supporting the view of no radical changes in US policies on the domestic economy, international trade and foreign policy.
Then Deutsche Bank shares’ drop to another record low at €10.18 led to a reversal in European stocks which spread to selling in other regions.
Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index dropped 0.3 per cent at 1,334.46.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 37.84 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 18,132.67, the S&P 500 was 3.48 points, or 0.16 per cent, higher at 2,149.58 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 21.76 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 5,279.25.
The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 45 nations, rose 0.74 points or 0.18 per cent, to 416.94.
US 10-year Treasury note yield slipped two basis points to 1.567 per cent to its lowest level in over two weeks, while German two-year yield reached a near record low of -0.717 per cent, according to Reuters data.
Oil markets were also in flux as the world’s largest producers gathered in Algeria to discuss ways to tackle a crude glut that has battered prices for two years now.
Brent crude was last down $1.26, or 2.66 per cent, at $46.09 a barrel. US crude was last down $1.25, or 2.72 per cent, at $44.68 per barrel.
The dollar index was up 0.4 per cent at 95.649, while the Mexican peso gained 1.6 per cent against the greenback.
Mexico’s currency hovered near all-time low at 19.735 peso per US dollar since last week on fears that a Trump presidency would threaten Mexico’s exports to the US, its single biggest market.
Spot gold prices fell $10.7501 or 0.80 per cent, to $1,326.81 an ounce.