A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from

Vidya Ranganathan

Europe's heavyweight software maker SAP reports

third-quarter earnings today. The behemoth will set the tone for

German and wider stock markets, since it comprises 15% of

Deutsche Boerse's DAX index with a 261 billion euro

($284 billion) market value.

SAP's cloud and business-planning software businesses have

been doing well this year and driven its share price up 53%.

That's key context, given how stock markets have been whipsawed

in the past week by a string of reports from big U.S. banks and

chipmakers such as ASML.

It's unlikely Monday's earnings report will produce any new

information on another long-running issue for SAP: a probe by

U.S. prosecutors into the firm and its contractors for potential

price-fixing in government contracts.

Broader markets are meanwhile counting down to the Nov. 5

U.S. presidential election, and putting on trades aligned with

opinion polls that show odds improving for former President

Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.

China's steady rollout of stimulus measures has also helped

sentiment, the latest being a quarter point lending rate cut on

Monday.

Bitcoin hit a three-month high and has risen 18%

since Oct. 10 on Trump's improving prospects, since his

administration would be seen as taking a softer line on

cryptocurrency regulation.

The dollar has been rising, too, driven by the view

that Trump's proposed tariff and tax policies could keep U.S.

interest rates high and undermine the currencies of its trading

partners.

Analysts say rising U.S. real rates are driving the dollar

up. But more so is the fact that interest rates elsewhere are

falling fast, giving the dollar a yield advantage.

The euro is down more than 3% in three weeks and

has fallen through its 200-day moving average. It is now parked

near a 2-1/2 month low.

The closely watched gap between U.S. and German 10-year bond

yields has widened to around 189 basis points

(bps) as U.S. yields have climbed in recent weeks while the

German ones have declined.

Key developments that could influence markets on Monday:

Data: German producer prices inflation, UK house prices

Speakers/events: Fed's Lorie Logan, Neel Kashkari, Jeffrey

Schmid, and Mary Daly; ECB's Gediminas Simkus; World financial

leaders gather for the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings.

Earnings: SAP SE, Unipol Gruppo, Bollore

SE, Sandvik AB, Nucor Corp

($1 = 0.9203 euros)