European stocks are seen opening on a cautious note Monday as investors await cues from Tuesday's hotly contested U.S presidential election, Thursday's FOMC meeting and October's U.S. jobs report due Friday.
Gold prices eased and the dollar index edged up against a basket of currencies after a new poll showed Joe Biden maintaining his overall lead over President Donald Trump across four of the most important swing states.
Oil prices fell more than 3 percent on worries that a swathe of coronavirus lockdowns across Europe will weaken fuel demand.
The U.S. is also grappling with rising coronavirus infections, with former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warning Sunday that the Thanksgiving holiday could be the "inflection point" of dangerous surge in coronavirus cases.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's top infectious diseases expert, said in a Washington Post interview that the U.S. "could not possibly be positioned more poorly" to stem rising cases ahead of the winter season.
Asian markets remain mostly higher as investors cheered further signs of recovery in China's manufacturing sector.
The manufacturing sector in China continued to expand in October, and at a faster rate, the latest survey from Caixin revealed with a manufacturing PMI score of 53.6, up from 53.0 in September.
The data pointed to a marked improvement in business conditions across China's manufacturing sector, with firms recording sharper rises in both output and total new work.
However, growth in new export sales softened notably amid a resurgence of the coronavirus across a number of export markets.
Closer home, factory purchasing managers' survey results from euro area are due later in the session, headlining a light day for the European economic news.
U.S. stocks fell on Friday as uncertainty loomed large over the presidential election, big tech companies reported mixed earnings and the U.S. broke its single-day record for new coronavirus infections.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6 percent to end at a three-month closing low, while the S&P 500 lost 1.2 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined as much as 2.5 percent to reach their lowest closing levels in over a month.
European stocks ended a choppy session mixed on Friday after data showed Euro zone GDP jumped by more than expected in the third quarter.
The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.2 percent. The German DAX eased 0.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 percent, while France's CAC 40 index rose half a percent.
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