Wall Street stocks finished mostly higher on Tuesday as oil prices continued to pull back, while markets awaited results from US midterm elections that could reshape US President Donald Trump's final two years in office.

Crude prices, which fell sharply on Monday on revived talk of US-Iran peace prospects, fell modestly hours after Trump insisted that a deal with Tehran "could happen," with traders also citing unconfirmed Middle East media reports saying progress on Iran's nuclear programme and frozen funds had been made.

The prospect of easing energy costs helped Wall Street steady after several sessions of losses, in particular on the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which enjoyed a positive session after three straight declines.

"Stocks are recovering from yesterday's bearish afternoon reversal even as the odds of a blue sweep have risen throughout the past few hours," said a note from Jose Torres of Interactive Brokers.

"The fact that equities are advancing in light of the Democrats being likely to win majority control across both chambers of Congress signals that a near-term bottom could be behind us, since an overall flip was the most feared outcome."

Americans voted on Tuesday with Democrats hoping to seize control of Congress and impose the first significant checks on Trump's tumultuous second term in the White House.

The election amounts to a nationwide judgement on his policies, with the mood turning sharply against Republicans amid anger over soaring living costs and the war against Iran.

Earnings reports from titans including Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft have shown they plan to keep pouring hundreds of billions of US dollars into data centres and chips even as investors grow impatient for returns.

Monday saw Apple post forecast-topping sales and profits but it warned that increasing memory chip costs would hit its profit margins in the coming months.

Shares in Apple shed 1.9 percent.

But shares in AI chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both climbed, along with AI data centre operator CoreWeave.

In Europe most stock indices ended little changed, with London's FTSE falling under the weight of its oil and gas firms like BP and Shell.

"A sharp decline in crude oil prices – triggered by remarks from US President Donald Trump regarding potential adjustments to overseas financial support – put heavy pressure on index energy heavyweights," said Patrick Munnelly at Tickmill.

The Nasdaq rose 0.8 percent, to 25,372, the S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent, to 7,569, while the Dow fell 0.4 percent, to 51,787. (AFP)



Edited by Robert Kemp