Australia

Australian shares are set to open lower, after a mixed session on Wall Street.

ASX futures were down 0.69% or 55 points as of 8:00am on Tuesday, suggesting a lower open.

The S&P 500 inched higher to kick off a busy week packed with corporate-earnings reports, a Federal Reserve interest-rate decision and key economic data.

Indexes were choppy throughout the trading session before ending mixed. After declining last week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.1%. The S&P 500 also rose 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1%.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil was down 1.6% to US$79.84 a barrel, while gold was down 0.1% at US$2,382.47.

The Australian dollar was at 65.46 US cents, down from its previous close of 65.48.

Asia

Chinese shares ended the day broadly lower, dragged by pharmaceutical and semiconductor stocks. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed flat at 2,891.85. The Shenzhen Composite Index fell 0.5% and the ChiNext Price Index was 1.4% lower. Investors are awaiting more policy hints from the July Politburo meeting this week. Wuxi AppTec fell 1.4%. Semiconductor Manufacturing International dropped 6.1%. Among individual movers, Fuyao Glass Industry fell 5.9% after it said multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies' visits to its U.S. facilities on Friday didn't target the company. Poly Developments & Holdings was 3.7% lower amid subdued sentiment on expectations that there may be a lack of further property stimulus from the Politburo meeting. Banks advanced, with Bank of Hangzhou rising 4.8% and Bank of China up 2.4%.

Hong Kong shares ended higher, with the Hang Seng Index rising 1.3% to 17,238.34 and the Hang Seng Tech Index adding 0.7%. Growing expectations for a Fed rate cut helped fuel a broadening equity rally, UOB analysts say in a commentary. Among major stocks, Alibaba Group climbed 4.7% after the e-commerce giant made changes to merchant service fees. NIO was 3.1% higher and Cnooc added 3.5%. Decliners included NetEase, which was 2.3% lower, and SMIC, which shed 2.5%.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 2.1% to close at 38,468.63. The U.S. PCE price index data released Friday showed headline and core inflation being well behaved, strengthening markets' conviction of a Fed rate cut in September, Alvin T. Tan, head of Asia forex strategy at RBC Capital Markets, says in an email. Among the index's best performers, Shin-Etsu Chemical climbed 8.6% and Rakuten Group added 7.55%. Mitsubishi Motors rose 5.3% following local media reports that the automaker is set to join the Honda-Nissan alliance. The 10-year JGB yield was 3 bps lower at 1.025%.

Indian shares ended flat amid a broadening equity rally fueled by Fed rate-cut expectations. The benchmark Sensex edged up 23.12 points to 81,355.84. Investors are closely watching the Fed, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England's policy meetings this week. Among major stocks, Tata Motors rose 0.5% and Mahindra & Mahindra added 1.7%. Decliners included HDFC Bank, which was 0.7% lower, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, down 1.0%. Titan Co. was 2.4% lower.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. rose Monday, as the FTSE 100 Index increased 0.1% to 8,292.35.

Among large companies, JD Sports Fashion PLC was the biggest gainer during the session, gaining 4.1%, and THG PLC gained 3.6%. Airtel Africa PLC rounded out the top three movers on Monday, as shares gained 2.9%.

Energean PLC posted the largest decline, dropping 9.7%, followed by shares of Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, which dropped 8.8%. Shares of Entain PLC dropped 8.1%.

In other parts of Europe markets closed lower, with the STOXX Europe 600 Index down 0.2% to 511.79, Germany's DAX fell 0.3% to 18,320.67 and France's CAC 40 slipped 1.0% to 7,443.84.

North America

The S&P 500 inched higher to kick off a busy week packed with corporate-earnings reports, a Federal Reserve interest-rate decision and key economic data.

Indexes were choppy throughout the trading session before ending mixed. After declining last week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.1%. The S&P 500 also rose 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1%.

The big question for investors in coming days is whether a succession of potentially market-moving events could extend a recent rotation of stock-market winners and losers that has punished large tech stocks and boosted shares of smaller companies.

"There's just a lot going on," said Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services. "It's hard to make a big call ahead of all of this."

One reason why investors have dumped shares of tech giants in recent weeks: Many have grown concerned that their huge rally in the first half of the year means they need to post unrealistically large profits to justify their share prices.

Those declines have dragged the S&P 500 lower for the past two weeks, cutting the index's gains for the year to 15%.

The moves have also lowered the bar slightly for Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Amazon.com and Apple, which will report their earnings over three days starting Tuesday. Still, analysts said that there will be intense focus on their results for any signs of weakness that could justify another round of selling.

Meanwhile, signals from the Fed and economic data could be critical for the other half of the recent market rotation. Stocks of smaller companies jumped earlier this month when a cool inflation report boosted traders' confidence that the Fed will cut interest rates in September.

Lower rates could be especially helpful to modest-size businesses that are more sensitive to the strength of the economy and more likely to have floating-rate debt.

The Fed on Wednesday is widely expected to keep rates unchanged. But investors will be watching closely for what the central bank signals about its future plans. On Friday, rate bets could get another jolt when the Labor Department releases its monthly jobs report.

Among individual stocks on Monday, McDonald's was a standout, rising 3.7% after the fast-food giant said U.S. same-store sales fell nearly 1%, the first such quarterly decline since 2020. But the company maintained its guidance for new stores, capital expenditures and operating margins for the year.

Energy was the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500, as U.S. crude fell 1.7% to $75.81 a barrel.

The bond market was quiet, with the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note ticking down to 4.176% from 4.199% on Friday.