- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- 'Stolen satire' feeds US election misinformation
- Rookie McCarty captures first PGA Tour title in Black Desert Championship
- Australia all-rounder Green ruled out of India Test series
- Seeing double in Nigeria's 'twins capital of the world'
- UK FM to attend EU foreign affairs talks for first time in 2 years
- Carter, Billups among 13 new Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- Ravens rip Commanders as Lions lose NFL sacks leader in win
- Hezbollah drone strike kills four, wounds dozens at Israeli base
- China says launches military drills around Taiwan
- Stewart leads Liberty past Lynx to level WNBA Finals
- England return to winning ways in Nations League, Austria thrash Norway
- UN chief says attacks on UNIFIL 'may constitute a war crime'
- Ravens outlast Commanders while Bucs batter Saints in NFL
- Dozens hurt in Israel as Hezbollah claims drone strike
- England deserve 'world class' coach: Carsley
- Burkina Faso win to become first qualifiers for 2025 AFCON
- AC Milan's Pulisic among five out for USA match in Mexico
- France's Amandine Henry retires from international football
- Centre-left set to win pro-Ukraine Lithuania's vote
- India's World Cup hopes in Pakistan hands after Australia defeat
- Zelensky says NKorea sending troops to Russian army
- England beat Finland to get back on track
- King and Lewis propel West Indies to T20 triumph over Sri Lanka
- Pre-Halloween 'Terrifier' lands atop North America box office
- 'I still plan to compete and play next season,' says Djokovic
- Harris, Trump seek advantage in knife-edge election battle
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record in Chicago
- Kamindu and Asalanka power Sri Lanka to 179 against West Indies
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record as Korir wins in Chicago
- Spain send injured Yamal home 'to prioritise player's health'
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Iraq walks fine line with pro-Iran factions to avoid war
- Race four abandoned after New Zealand breeze into 3-0 lead in America's Cup
- West Indies win toss, put Sri Lanka in to bat in first T20
- Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market
- Netanyahu tells UN to move Lebanon peacekeepers out of 'harm's way'
- Bangladeshi Hindus defy attack worries to celebrate festival
- Kiwis three up in America's Cup as Ineos pay for time penalty
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Dominant England crush Scotland at Women's T20 World Cup
- Dropped: The rise and fall of Pakistan batting maestro Babar Azam
- Israel fights Hezbollah on the ground, pounds Lebanon from the air
- Sabalenka outlasts local hero Zheng to win third Wuhan Open title
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Former Pakistan captain Azam dropped for second England Test
- 'Opportunist' Dupont dazzles on Toulouse return
- Australia replace injured Vlaeminck with Graham at Women's T20 World Cup
- Sinner wins Shanghai Masters to deny Djokovic 100th career title
- Ubisoft fears assassin's hit over falling sales
US stocks build on year-end rally after steel merger, rate cut talks
Stocks on Wall Street finished the day mostly higher Monday as traders reacted to news of a large steel acquisition and both caution and optimism from a number of senior US Federal Reserve officials about interest rates.
But trading in Europe and Asia was less enthusiastic, with stocks driven lower by surging oil prices on the news that more companies were avoiding the Red Sea amid ongoing attacks against cargo ships by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat, while the broad-based S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index both rose.
"The market is up, but it's not broadly based, and I think more so due to the M&A that we got this morning," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities.
Japan's Nippon Steel agreed to buy US Steel Corp for $14.1 billion, the companies announced on Monday, sparking criticism about the firm's ownership in an industry crucial to US national security.
US Steel's share price surged more than 26 percent following the announcement.
- Fed officials cautiously optimistic -
Meantime, comments from three senior US Fed officials pointed to a mix of both optimism and concern, amid a market rally fueled largely by speculation the US central bank will soon begin cutting interest rates.
The Fed voted to hold its key lending rate steady at a meeting last week, and penciled in three interest rate cuts for next year.
In an interview published Monday, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly told the Wall Street Journal that she thought interest-rate policy was in a "good place" to bring inflation down to the Fed's long-term target of two percent.
"We're acknowledging progress when progress is there," said Daly, an incoming voter on the Fed's rate-setting committee.
"The markets are a little bit ahead," Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester told the Financial Times in another interview published Monday.
"They jumped to the end part, which is 'We're going to normalize quickly', and I don't see that," added Mester, who will also become a voting member of the Fed's rate-setting committee from January.
But Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said he was confused by the strong market reaction since the Fed's decision.
Goolsbee will lose his vote on the Fed's rate-setting committee at the end of the year, along with the presidents of the Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Dallas Fed banks.
- Oil prices jump -
In Europe, all major stock indexes closed lower following a surge in oil prices on concerns about Red Sea Shipping.
Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels said Monday that they had attacked two "Israeli-linked" vessels in the Red Sea, the latest in a flurry of drone and missile strikes on vessels entering the waters aimed at pressuring Israel over its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Five of the world's six largest shipping companies have announced they will not send ships through the Red Sea. On Monday, British oil giant BP and Taiwan's Evergreen became the latest to suspend transit.
Ships must travel through the Red Sea to use the Suez Canal, a key transit route for cargo and oil.
In response to the attacks, the United States on Monday announced a 10-nation coalition against Huthi attacks.
"These suspensions mean that cargos face a lengthy diversion around the Horn of Africa which will add significant costs to company supply chains, as well as having significant inflationary impacts," said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.
Investors are also keeping tabs on the Bank of Japan's meeting this week, though speculation it will shift away from a policy of not hiking rates has faded in recent weeks.
- Key figures around 2100 GMT -
New York - Dow: FLAT at 37,306.02 points (close)
New York - S&P 500: UP 0.5 percent at 4,740.56 (close)
New York - Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 14,904.81 (close)
London - FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,614.48 (close)
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,568.86 (close)
Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.6 percent at 16,650.55 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.6 percent at 4,521.13 (close)
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 32,758.98 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.0 percent at 16,629.23 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 2,930.80 (close)
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.5 percent at $72.47 per barrel
Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.8 percent at $77.95 per barrel
Dollar/yen: UP at 142.73 yen from 142.22 yen on Friday
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0919 from $1.0897
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2650 from $1.2677
Euro/pound: UP at 86.31 pence from 85.94 pence
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A.Jones--AMWN