Digesting Biden exit, markets focus on earnings, data By Reuters

By Yoruk Bahceli and fvp Forex latest newsTom Westbrook

(Reuters) - World markets steadied on Tuesday as investors looked beyond Joe Biden's exit from the U.S. presidential race, turning their focus to corporate earnings and economic data.

Biden's exit from the race has cast some doubt over a Republican victory under Donald Trump and could see investors unwind trades betting that such a win would add to U.S. fiscal and inflationary pressures.

Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday as the Democrats's presumed nominee.

The pan-European STOXX index was up 0.1% while U.S. futures were down 0.2% following a 1.1% rise in the on Monday.[.N]

The U.S. dollar, which had edged higher on Monday, was unchanged against a basket of currencies on Tuesday.

"Markets appear to be in a bit of a holding pattern this morning having now digested the weekend news flow of Biden quitting the presidential race," said Michael Brown, senior strategist at broker Pepperstone in London.

Investors will now focus on whether the polls show a closer race against Trump than when Biden was the Democratic candidate, Brown said.

"You'd expect that, were polls to narrow, and the race be seen as a closer contest, volatility to tick higher, and perhaps some downside creep into the equity space too," he added.

Still, Asian markets remained supported on Tuesday, with Taiwan's benchmark snapping five sessions of losses, rising over 2%.

That tracked a broader rebound in chipmaking shares recovering some of the $100 billion in market value that was wiped off Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, over the previous few sessions. ()

The stock had come under pressure following Trump's comments that Taiwan should pay to be defended and accusing the island of stealing American chip business

Focus was firmly on earnings on Tuesday, with Tesla (NASDAQ:) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:) due to report after the session close in New York, beginning the season for the "Magnificent Seven" megacap group of stocks.

The tech sector is projected to increase year-over-year earnings by 17%, while profit for the communication services sector is seen rising about 22%, according to LSEG IBES, but richly valued stocks are also prone to disappointment.

Others reporting include France's LVMH, which will be closely-watched as sliding demand from China has pummelled the sector.

DATA WATCH

In currency markets the main mover was the yen, which was last up 0.6% against the dollar at 156.04.

Comments form a senior Japanese politician on Monday added to the pressure on the Bank of Japan, which meets on July 31, to keep hiking rates to help boost its currency, which Tokyo has intervened to prop up this month.

Australia and New Zealand's currencies, often seen as liquid proxies for , also dropped following China's surprise interest rate cuts on Monday, which has also put a spotlight on weakness in the world's second largest economy.

The euro was down 0.2% at $1.0873.

Focus remained on central banks. Markets have priced in two U.S. rate cuts this year with the first in September, but expectations could be ruffled by growth and consumer price data due later in the week.

Having moved higher on Monday, benchmark 10-year Treasury yields inched two basis points lower to 4.24% and two-year yields, sensitive to interest rate expectations, were down 2 bp to 4.51%.

Advance U.S. gross domestic product is forecast to show growth picking up to an annualised 2% in the second quarter, while the closely watched Atlanta Fed GDPNow indicator points to growth of 2.7%, suggesting some risk to the upside.

The core personal consumption expenditures index, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, is seen rising 0.1% in June, pulling the annual pace down a tick to 2.5%.

Gold prices were pinned around $2,400 after peaking above $2,450 last week. futures, which hit a one-month low on Monday, were up 0.1% at $82.48 a barrel.

, which has rallied on bets a Trump administration would take a light-touch approach to cryptocurrency regulation, was down 1.8% to $66,920.

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