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Global shares hold near record level

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Megacap earnings due this week

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Policy announcement on tap from multiple central banks

(Updates to US market open)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Global shares edged higher

to a fresh intraday record on Tuesday, continuing a recent rally

fueled by the appearance of cooling trade tensions between the

U.S. and China, while investors awaited policy announcements

from multiple central banks and digested the latest round of

corporate earnings.

The U.S. Federal Reserve will kick off on Wednesday a string

of policy announcements from global central banks, including

those of Japan, Canada, and Europe, this week.

The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates at the

meeting, with markets pricing in a 96.7% chance for a rate cut

of 25 basis points, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.

Expectations for a lower path of interest rates from the

central bank along with recent signs trade tensions between the

U.S. and China were easing have helped boost risk appetite,

sending stocks higher and keeping the 10-year U.S. Treasury

yield moored near multi-month lows.

In addition, the ongoing U.S. government shutdown has led to

a dearth of economic data for investors to parse.

'CONTINUED RALLY' SEEN IN RISKY ASSETS

However, the ADP National Employment Report's inaugural

weekly preliminary estimate showed on Tuesday that U.S. private

payrolls increased by an average 14,250 jobs in the four weeks

ending October 11.

"Volatility has been extraordinarily low and kind of, in

some respects, surprising given all of the uncertainties... but

it seems to be very, very stable, and you're seeing the sort of

continued rally in risky assets," said Subadra Rajappa, head of

U.S. rates strategy at Societe Generale in New York.

"So you have a combination, especially for the Fed meeting,

of lower yields, easier financial conditions, inflation coming

off, the job market remaining somewhat stable as well, so it's

been a tough read on the economy."

The European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) are

largely expected to keep rates unchanged at their respective

policy meetings.

DOW LEADS GAINS AMONG MAJOR INDEXES

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks rose modestly in early trading,

with the Dow leading gains among major indexes due to a surge of

about 4% in Sherwin-Williams after the paint and coatings

company reported quarterly earnings that topped expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 281.40 points,

or 0.59%, to 47,826.92, the S&P 500 rose 6.05 points, or

0.09%, to 6,881.21 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 50.84

points, or 0.22%, to 23,688.29.

Equities have been rallying as U.S. President Donald Trump

and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are due to meet on

Thursday to decide on a framework that could pause tougher U.S.

tariffs and China's rare-earth export curbs, easing market

jitters around a trade war.

Earnings are expected this week from "Magnificent Seven"

heavyweights Microsoft ( MSFT ), Alphabet, Apple ( AAPL )

, Amazon ( AMZN ) and Meta Platforms ( META ), and

investors will closely eye the results to see if they justify

heightened valuations.

MORE THAN FOUR IN FIVE S&P COMPANIES BEAT EXPECTATIONS

Of the 180 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings

through Tuesday morning, 86.7% have topped analyst expectations,

according to LSEG data.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe

rose 0.40 points, or 0.04%, to 1,012.88 after hitting an

intraday record of 1013.60 while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst

300 index fell 3.19 points, or 0.14%.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell

0.4 basis point to 3.993%, from 3.997% late on Monday. The

2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with

interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 0.3

basis point to 3.498%.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback

against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,

fell 0.08% to 98.69, with the euro up 0.14% at $1.1659.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.58%

to 151.99 after comments from a Japanese minister and U.S.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent eased some concerns about more

expansive fiscal and monetary policy in the country.

Sterling weakened 0.49% to $1.3268.

In commodities, U.S. crude fell 1.6% to $60.33 a

barrel and Brent fell to $64.56 per barrel, down 1.6%

on the day in a third session of declines as investors assess

the effect of U.S. sanctions on Russia's two biggest oil

companies along with a potential OPEC+ plan to raise output.