Stock futures rally as FBI clears Clinton

[November 07, 2016]  By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rallied on Monday, a day before the U.S. presidential election, after the FBI said no criminal charges would be laid against Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton as a result of a probe into her email practices.

The FBI sent shockwaves through the presidential race on Sunday, saying a review of newly found emails gave it no reason to change its July finding that Clinton was not guilty of criminal wrongdoing in her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Clinton holds a three-point lead over Republican Donald Trump, according to the final Bloomberg Politics-Selzer & Co poll released on Monday.

Clinton is seen as the more status-quo candidate by investors, while Trump's stance on foreign policy, trade and immigration has unnerved the market.

Markets across the globe rose as the FBI announcement lifted the cloud over Clinton's campaign. 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.

The CBOE Volatility index <.VIX>, dubbed Wall Street's "fear gauge", was down 13.6 percent, on pace for its biggest one-day fall since Sept. 21.

Risk assets were back in favor, with Brent crude futures rising for the first time in seven days, while safe-haven gold was set for its worst day in more than one month.

The biggest winner was the Mexican peso, which has acted as a bellwether of sentiment as Trump's proposed policies are considered deeply negative for the country. The currency rose around 2 percent to a 1-1/2 week high of 18.63 per dollar.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., November 3, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

All 20 of the 30 Dow components trading premarket on Monday were higher, with Apple and Microsoft gaining about 1.5 percent.

NetSuite jumped 20.5 percent after more than half of its eligible shareholders backed Oracle's $9.3 billion-bid for the cloud storage company.

Futures snapshot at 6:51 a.m. ET:

Dow e-minis were up 235 points, or 1.32 percent, with 36,345 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 28.25 points, or 1.36 percent, with 220,961 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 72.25 points, or 1.55 percent, on volume of 28,616 contracts.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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