Stocks in the United States ended little changed on Monday. Investors were unwilling to place significant bets ahead of the presidential election on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones industrial average edged down 5.18 points, or 0.06%, to 9,319.83.
Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 2.45 points, or 0.25%, at 966.30. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 5.38 points, or 0.31%, to 1,726.33.
Volume on the New York Stock Exchange was about 1.02 billion shares, the lowest since the Friday before the Labor Day holiday. Last year's estimated daily average volume was 1.90 billion shares.
European stocks rose on Monday for the fifth day. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended 0.5% higher at 933.72 points.
The index lost 12.7% last month and is down nearly 40% this year to date.
Across Europe: Germany's DAX gained 0.8% and France's CAC rose 1.2%. In Britain, the FTSE ended 1.5% higher.
Interest rate cuts by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank are widely expected later this week.
Other markets
Japanese markets were closed on Monday for Culture Day. On Friday the Nikkei index lost 452.78 points to close at 8,576.98.
Hong Kong shares rose 2.7%. The Hang Seng Index closed up 375.70 points at 14,344.37.
Australian shares rose 5.1%, ahead of another expected cut in interest rates by the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday. The S&P/ASX 200 index ended up 203.5 points at 4,221.5.
The NZX50 opened on Tuesday at 2856 after closing up 35 points on Monday.
At 8.30am, the New Zealand dollar was buying US59.35 cents, 87.71 Australian cents, 37.55 pence and 0.4703 Euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 60.13.
