NEW YORK, Oct 22, 2018 (AFP): Wall Street stocks edged higher early Monday, as the market sought to shake off last week's volatility at the start of a heavy week of corporate earnings results.
About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a hair to 25,448.50.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1 percent to 2,769.15, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.3 percent to 7,474.57.
After big swings in both directions, US stocks last week finished the week little changed as investors weighed mostly strong earnings against lingering worries over trade and higher interest rates and uncertainty over the fallout from the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
But investors were trying to turn the page early Monday ahead of earnings later this week from Amazon, Boeing, McDonald's and others.
The government also is set to release the first report on the third-quarter US economic growth on Friday.
Among US companies reporting results Monday, Halliburton dropped 2.3 percent, Hasbro fell 5.4 percent and Kimberly-Clark slipped 0.6 percent.
Meanwhile, European stock markets climbed Monday, helped by solid gains on the Milan index as investors looked beyond a credit downgrade for Italy, which has told Brussels it will stick to a controversial budget.
The dollar rose against major rivals, while oil prices edged higher, as investors tracked geopolitical tensions, notably in response to the killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.
"Moody's have downgraded Italy's credit rating to one notch above junk status, but the agency lifted its outlook to stable from negative, so investors aren't afraid of another downgrade in the near-term," said David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Around 1045 GMT, the Milan FTSE MIB index was up 0.8 percent, although steam had been taken out of an initial rally.
Moody's ratings agency on Friday downgrading Italy on concerns about its populist government's plans to increase public spending, a move heavily criticised by the European Union.
The downgrade -- from Baa2 to Baa3 with a stable outlook -- is the latest move by international financial watchdogs sounding the alarm over Italy's economic health.
Italy's populist coalition on Monday told the European Union that it would stick to its high-spending draft budget but will scrupulously avoid going over its own debt and deficit limits.
"The figure of 2.4 percent (deficit to GDP ratio in 2019) is a ceiling that we have solemnly undertaken to respect," Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told journalists after the coalition sent its pledge in a letter to the EU.
Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG trading group, noted that "Italian fears appear to be easing... with Treasury yields drifting lower, while under pressure stocks such as the banks have started to come back into favour".
Earlier Monday, most Asian stock markets rose, with Shanghai surging more than four percent to build on a rally at the end of last week -- though traders remain cautious over China-US trade tensions.
Tokyo reversed early losses to end 0.4-percent higher, while Sydney fell.
While trade unrest simmers, investors are considering other brewing problems, including the US saying it will pull out of a decades-old nuclear treaty with Russia.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov warned withdrawal "would be a very dangerous step".
Markets meanwhile continue to track international pressure on Saudi Arabia after the kingdom admitted that a journalist critical of Riyadh had been killed at its Istanbul consulate.
Saudi Arabia on Monday said it had no plans to repeat its harsh 1973 oil embargo, even as relations with the West sour following the death of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.
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