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Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft ( MSFT ), Apple ( AAPL ), Amazon ( AMZN ) results due this

week

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Traders watching JOLTS, payrolls figures for Fed policy

clues

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US election in final stretch with polls too close to call

(Updates at 0936 GMT)

By Samuel Indyk and Kevin Buckland

LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - European shares edged higher

on Tuesday as investors girded for three days of megacap tech

earnings reports on Wall Street, while the dollar held near a

three-month high before key labour market data.

The yen found its footing following Monday's dip to a

three-month low as the coalition government's drubbing in

weekend elections clouded the outlook for Japanese fiscal and

monetary policies. The Nikkei index recovered from a cautious

start to build on the previous session's gains.

The U.S. election has entered its final stretch, with

opinion polls still too close to call a winner, despite some

betting sites and financial markets leaning toward a win for

Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris.

"Markets are in a positive mood, and seem to be immune to

event risk," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.3%,

hitting a more than one-week high.

Germany's DAX, Britain's FTSE 100 and

France's CAC 40 were up between 0.4%-0.6%.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei ended the day up 0.8%,

building on its 1.8% rally in the previous session. It started

the day down 0.2%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 0.5% higher, paring earlier

gains of as much as 1.6%. Mainland Chinese blue chips

slipped 1%, reversing an early rise of 0.68% as investors eyed a

top leadership meeting next week for more details of Beijing's

stimulus measures.

U.S. S&P 500 futures were up slightly after the cash

index gained 0.3% on Monday.

The bulk of the "Magnificent Seven" group of megacap

technology stocks that have driven Wall Street to all-time highs

this year report financial results this week. Alphabet

kicks things off later on Tuesday before earnings from Meta

Platforms ( META ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) are due on Wednesday,

followed by Apple ( AAPL ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) on Thursday.

DOLLAR NEAR 3-MONTH PEAK

The dollar was little changed against a basket of six major

peers, which includes the yen and euro. The dollar index

stood at 104.24, after reaching 104.57 on Monday, matching the

high from Wednesday of last week, a level previously not seen

since July 30.

Recent robust U.S. economic data, including evidence of a

resilient job market, have prompted a scaling back of bets on

further Federal Reserve easing this year, boosting the dollar.

One of the Federal Reserve's preferred employment gauges -

the JOLTs job openings report - is due on Tuesday, ahead of

highly anticipated monthly nonfarm payrolls data on Friday.

The U.S. currency has also been buoyed by rising market

expectations for an election win for Trump, whose tariff, tax

and immigration policies are seen as inflationary, thus negative

for bonds and positive for the dollar.

Ten-year U.S. Treasury yields rose to 4.314% on

Tuesday, the highest since July 11.

"Markets have started to care more about the election," said

Nordea's von Gerich.

"Clearly Trump has gained in the polls and even more in the

betting odds and we're seeing that in a stronger dollar and

higher rates."

The dollar rose 0.1% to 153.415 yen, just below

Monday's 153.885, its highest since July 31.

In Japan, a period of wrangling to secure a coalition is

likely after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic

Party and its junior partner Komeito lost their majority in

parliament, in a scathing result that potentially means bigger

fiscal spending and complicates the Bank of Japan's push to

normalise interest rates.

The head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People

said on Tuesday that the central bank should avoid making big

changes in its ultra-loose monetary policy because real wage

growth remains at a standstill.

The BOJ next decides policy on Thursday, with no change

expected.

The euro held steady at $1.0824, and sterling

stood at $1.2984.

Gold rose 0.39% to $2,753 an ounce, pushing up

towards the record high of $2,758.37 from last week.

Brent crude futures rose to $71.90 a barrel, while

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $67.83 a

barrel. Both contracts tumbled 6% on Monday, hitting their

lowest since Oct. 1, after Israeli strikes on Iran at the

weekend avoided oil infrastructure.