GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks edge higher, dollar slips as Biden victory looms

(Adds U.S. market open, byline, dateline)
* Strong private sector jobs data lifts bond yields
* Dollar slips to two-month low, gold trends higher
* Japan's Nikkei hits 29-year high
* Oil suffers from COVID-19 worries

By Herbert Lash and Tom Arnold
NEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Global stock markets
edged higher and the dollar sank to a two-month low on Friday as
investors awaited final vote processing in the U.S. presidential
election that showed Joe Biden on the verge of winning the White
House.
Treasury yields rose on better-than-expected October
employment data, while oil prices slid below $40 a barrel as new
lockdowns in Europe to halt the surging COVID-19 pandemic dimmed
the demand outlook.
MSCI's all-country world stock index .MIWD00000PUS rose
0.19% to 592.5, adding to a week-long rally that has seen the
benchmark for global equity markets advance more than 7%. The
index is on course for its best week in nearly seven months.
In Europe, the broad pan-regional FTSEurofirst 300 index
.FTEU3 dropped 0.12% to 1,418.13.
Biden took the lead over President Donald Trump in the
battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia for the first
time on Friday, but Georgia ordered a recount that could lead to
a long period of uncertainty, which markets dislike.
The surge in coronavirus cases, both in Europe and the
United States, put a damper on the recovery outlook and investor
enthusiasm that had embraced a scenario of Republicans retaining
control of the Senate during a Biden administration.
"The market perhaps is starting to cheer there being some
certainty to the election," said Subadra Rajappa, head of U.S.
rates strategy at Societe Generale in New York.
"There was some skittishness to the bond market when
elections were too close to call. So the risk premium associated
with a prolonged election uncertainty gets priced out," Rajappa
said.
Wall Street's main stock indexes gave back some of this
week's sharp gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
0.18%, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.08% and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 0.18%.
Michael Englund, chief economist at Action Economics in
Boulder, Colorado, said the U.S. unemployment report raised the
prospect for fourth-quarter growth, putting upward pressure on
bond yields.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury US10YT=RR note's yield rose 4.7
basis points to 0.8185%.
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to a lower-than-expected
6.9% from 7.9% in September, while growth in private payrolls
blew past the consensus estimate, adding 906,000 jobs,
especially in the hard hit leisure and entertainment sector.
"Overall, it was a very encouraging report. The job market
is pretty broadly recovering and recovering better than most
forecasters have expected," said Russell Price, chief economist
at Ameriprise Financial Services Inc in Troy, Michigan.
But a 638,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls was the smallest
gain since a jobs recovery started in May, a sign the economy
still needed stimulus.
Italy's 10-year yield hit a record low of 0.603% on
expectations of further stimulus.
With COVID-19 raging in the United States and parts of
Europe, many investors assume more central bank stimulus is
inevitable.
The Bank of England expanded its asset purchase scheme on
Thursday, while the Federal Reserve kept its monetary policy
loose and pledged to do whatever it takes to sustain a U.S.
economic recovery. The European Central Bank is
widely expected to announce more stimulus next month.
Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.9% .N225
to a 29-year high while MSCI's broadest gauge of Asian Pacific
shares outside Japan rose 0.3%, near a three-year high.
.MIAPJ0000PUS .
In currency markets, lower yields undermined the dollar,
with the dollar index touching a two-month low. It =USD fell
0.472%, with the euro EUR= up 0.5% to $1.188.
The Japanese yen JPY= strengthened 0.24% versus the
greenback at 103.24 per dollar.
Spot gold prices XAU= rose 0.17% to $1,951.81 an ounce.
Crude prices fell as fresh lockdowns in Europe to contain
the coronavirus darkened the outlook for oil.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell $1.54 to $39.39 a barrel.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 slid $1.66 to $37.13 a barrel.

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Stock market from Election Day to inauguration https://tmsnrt.rs/3jSBTjO
Dollar falls to 2-month low https://tmsnrt.rs/2GxqA2M
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