*

Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft ( MSFT ), Apple ( AAPL ), Amazon ( AMZN ) to report results

this

week

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Traders watching JOLTS, payrolls figures for Fed policy

clues

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US election into final stretch with polls close, markets

eyeing

Trump win

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Asian stocks were mixed in

volatile trading on Tuesday as investors girded for three days

of tech megacap earnings reports on Wall Street, kicking off

with Google parent Alphabet later in the day.

The dollar drifted not far from a three-month high with one

of the Federal Reserve's preferred employment gauges - the JOLTS

job openings report - due on Tuesday, ahead of highly

anticipated monthly non-farm payrolls data on Friday. U.S.

Treasury yields eased from three-month peaks.

The yen found its footing following Monday's plunge 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.

Crude ticked up slightly following its plunge on Monday on

signs the war in the Middle East would not widen, after Israel

avoided targeting oil and nuclear facilities in a retaliatory

strike on Iran at the weekend.

The Nikkei rose 0.65% as of 0213 GMT, building on

its 1.82% rally in the previous session. It started the day down

0.21%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 0.65% higher, paring

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

slipped 0.1%, giving up an early rise of 0.68%.

U.S. S&P 500 futures were flat after the cash index

gained 0.26% overnight.

"The conviction to take these markets higher, we just

don't have that," said Tony Sycamore, a markets analyst at IG.

"We're in a very, very tricky period here. It just doesn't make

sense to be chasing risk at this time."

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, starting with

Alphabet. Earnings from Meta Platforms ( META ) and

Microsoft ( MSFT ) are due on Wednesday, followed by Apple ( AAPL )

and Amazon ( AMZN ) on Thursday.

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 overnight, 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 seen bets pared back for easing this

year by the Federal Reserve, boosting the dollar.

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 eased to 4.272% on

Tuesday, after reaching the highest since July 11 at 4.3%

overnight.

The dollar slipped 0.24% to 152.92 yen, but that

followed a rally to the highest since July 31 at 153.885 yen on

Monday.

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 now because real wage

growth is still at a standstill.

The BOJ next decides policy on Thursday, with no change

expected.

The euro held steady at $1.0814, and sterling

was flat at $1.2973.

Gold rose 0.35% to $2,751.76 an ounce, pushing up

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

Brent crude futures gained 0.6% to $71.86 a barrel,

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

barrel, up 0.7%. Both contracts tumbled 6% on Monday, hitting

their lowest since Oct. 1.