04:06 PM EST, 11/05/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes ended higher Tuesday as markets awaited results of the US presidential election.

Wall Street will be watching key swing states with the market likely to wobble through uncertainty until a clear result is known, analysts said. It might take several days before the outcome of the vote is known..

* The US services sector continued to expand in October even as new orders growth eased, the Institute for Supply Management said.

"Concerns over political uncertainty were again more prevalent than the previous month," said Steve Miller, chair of the ISM's services business survey committee. "Impacts from hurricanes and ports labor turbulence were mentioned frequently, although several panelists mentioned that the longshoremen's strike had less of an impact than feared due to its short duration."

* Redbook said US same-store retail sales last week rose 6% from a year earlier after a 5.6% gain in the prior week due to Halloween-related merchandise with holiday season purchases expected to begin after election.

* December West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed up $0.52 to settle at $71.99 per barrel, while January Brent, the global benchmark, was last seen up $0.53 to $75.61 after OPEC+'s weekend decision to delay 180,000 barrels a day of monthly production increases to January, while traders focus on geopolitical risks from the election.

* Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) shares surged 24%. a day after the software maker posted stronger-than-expected Q3 results and raised full-year guidance amid surging artificial-intelligence demand.

* AstraZeneca ( AZN ) shares fell 7.2% after China's Yicai news agency reported that several senior executives at the company's regional unit were implicated in an insurance fraud case.