Trader's Highlight

NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced modestly on Monday in light trading in one of the year's quietest sessions on the day before the U.S. presidential election.

Whatever the outcome of the race between incumbent President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, the election's resolution will finally end the uncertainty that has kept the market stagnant for the past few weeks.

“No one’s going to make big bets today,” said Perry Piazza, director of investment strategy at Contango Capital Advisors in San Francisco.

Just 5.16 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT on Monday, below this year's average daily volume of 6.5 billion.

"[The market] has been directionless over the last few weeks because of what fiscal and tax policy looks like next year. You could argue that just having the uncertainty behind us could lead to a bit of a relief rally," Piazza said.

The Nasdaq was the strongest of the three major U.S. stock indexes, helped by a rally in Apple Inc, the most valuable publicly traded U.S. company. Apple's stock rose 1.4 percent to close at $584.62. The stock has fallen 17 percent from its closing high of $705.07 on Sept. 21.

Once the election is over, the market will turn to the "fiscal cliff," the $600 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts that could hit the economy hard in 2013 unless Congress comes to an agreement that will soften the blow.

"I guess, academically, you could convince yourself a president doesn’t generally doesn’t have that much influence over the economy near-term, but the fact remains, they could impact the market," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of Harris Private Bank in Chicago.

A budget crisis in the United States could hamper growth around the world. On Sunday, economic leaders pressed the United States to avert the fiscal cliff in the interest of avoiding a large-scale economic slowdown.

Another drag on trading volume was the residual impact of Hurricane Sandy, which has left about 30,000 to 40,000 Americans homeless. The superstorm wreaked havoc on infrastructure and housing in the Northeast.

"I think Sandy is still affecting volume a little bit," Piazza said. "Folks we deal with in New York seem to be back at work now, but they were out most of the week last week, and still have other things on their minds."

The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 19.28 points, or 0.15 percent, to end at 13,112.44. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 3.06 points, or 0.22 percent, to 1,417.26. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 17.53 points, or 0.59 percent, to close at 2,999.66.

The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX, Wall Street's favorite barometer of investor anxiety, rose 4.72 percent - a relatively big move compared with the S&P 500 - to end Monday's session at 18.42.

"It's just a few people taking positions ahead of the election, to protect themselves against a pullback," said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. "I think this will go on tomorrow as well," adding that he believes the market will be flat while the VIX is likely to show "a bigger move, as it's just the nature of hedging ahead of big news like the election."

The PHLX semiconductor index rose 1.6 percent and bolstered the Nasdaq.

An index of housing-related shares gained 1.8 percent.

In the energy sector, the S&P energy index gained 0.7 percent following a gain in crude oil futures prices and third-quarter earnings from two major energy companies.

Transocean Ltd, which operates the world's largest offshore oil drilling fleet, gained 5.6 percent to $48.64, a day after the company reported a higher-than-expected adjusted profit for the third quarter. 

Shares of Southern Co, the second-largest U.S. power company, fell 2.5 percent to $44.62 after Southern posted third-quarter earnings.

The S&P utilities index, down 1.66 percent, was the worst performing of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors a week after superstorm Sandy hit New York City and surrounding areas.

Shares of Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable operator, lost 6.4 percent to $91.93 after the company reported a quarterly profit that missed estimates as it lost more video subscribers than expected. 

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc surged 31.2 percent to $49.07 after the company said a late-stage trial of its experimental drug for a rare genetic disorder could improve patients' walking ability when the medicine is administered weekly. The rally in BioMarin's stock helped drive the Nasdaq biotech index up 1.7 percent. 

Despite the light volume on Monday, the market's breadth was positive. Advancers slightly outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by a ratio of 15 to 14. On the Nasdaq, about three stocks rose for every two that fell.

NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures rose on Monday, after falling to their lowest since July, and extended gains to more than $1 post-settlement as gasoline futures rallied while the storm-ravaged East Coast continued to grapple with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

CBOT Soybean - Soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell to a 2-1/2 week low on long liquidation and improving weather forecasts for crops in South America, traders said.

* Additional pressure stemmed from expectations that USDA will raise its forecast of the 2012 U.S. soybean harvest when it releases its next monthly supply/demand reports on Friday.

• Beneficial rains were forecast for Brazil's center-west and northeast regions this week, bolstering prospects for a record-large soybean crop, forecaster Somar said. Parts of top soy state Mato Grosso received 2.2 inches (56 mm) of rain on Sunday, after below-average rainfall in October. 
• Brazil will probably harvest a record 79.02 million tonnes of soybeans in 2012/13, local crop analyst Celeres said on Monday, holding its forecast from a month earlier as planting picks up. Celeres said farmers had planted 37 percent of the crop, up from 27 percent a week ago but down from 48 percent a year ago. 
• In Argentina, producers have jump-started corn and soy planting in recent days as a sunny streak has improved conditions after months of flooding.
• CBOT reported 601 deliveries against November futures, with JP Morgan customer accounts issuing 459 and Newedge USA customer stoping 402.
• Trade expects USDA in its weekly crop progress report later on Monday to show the U.S. soybean harvest at was 92 percent complete last week, compared with 87 percent the previous week. 

SINGAPORE, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures tumbled to their lowest in more than three weeks on Monday, as traders continued to worry over large stockpiles in the world's No.2 producer of the tropical oil.

Traders and analysts expected inventories in Malaysia to reach a fresh record high in October on strong production. Weakness in other vegetable oil markets also weighed on palm oil prices.

"The market's dragged down by soybean oil and soybeans, and local sentiment is also not good," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.

"The question for oilseeds, especially palm oil, is basically Malaysia's end-stocks figures for October. Exports may be good, but end-stocks are not coming down. The question is how much, and we are looking at 2.5 million or 2.6 million tonnes."

The benchmark January contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 3.4 percent to close at 2,411 ringgit ($788) per tonne. Prices earlier fell to an intraday low at 2,381 ringgit, weakest since Oct. 12.

Total traded volumes stood at 44,480 lots of 25 tonnes each, much higher than the usual 25,000 lots, as traders rushed to liquidate their positions.

Concerns remained that strong exports of 1.6 million tonnes in October would do little to counter healthy production that may swell stockpiles.

Industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) releases data on October inventory levels on Nov. 12.

"We expect the upcoming MPOB data to be uninspiring, as inventory is poised to increase further, to another record high of 2.65 million tonnes," Alan Lim Seong Chun, a research analyst with Malaysia's Kenanga Investment Bank, said in a note on Monday.

"However, the high inventory should have already been reflected in the very high discount of crude palm oil against soybean oil, at more than $250 per tonne."

The steep discount between palm and soybean oil could trigger higher purchases from India, the world's biggest vegetable oil importer, and top analyst Dorab Mistry called for the country to impose an import duty of 10 percent on crude palm oil to protect its farmers.

In related markets, Brent prices slipped to around $105 a barrel on Monday, weighed down by a strong dollar and demand destruction after Superstorm Sandy, while investors remained cautious ahead of the U.S. presidential election. 

In other vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for December delivery slipped 0.8 percent in late Asian trade. The most active May 2013 soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange closed 3 percent lower.

BANGKOK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets ended mostly lower-to-flat on Monday amid weakness elsewhere in Asia, with Indonesia and Malaysia hitting multi-week lows while Thailand pared earlier gains to end nearly flat.

Jakarta's Composite Index was down 0.8 percent at 4,302.93, the lowest since Oct. 11 and a retreat from a record close of 4,364.59 hit on Oct. 30. Malaysia's main index edged down 0.13 percent to 1654.04, the lowest since Oct. 16.

Malaysia hit a peak of 1,675.69 on Nov. 1.

Among decliners, Indonesia's biggest firm by value Astra International dropped 1.9 percent and Malaysia's telecoms firm Axiata Group was down 0.3 percent.

The region saw light trading volume amid caution in broader Asia as investors shied away from risk ahead of the closely fought U.S. presidential election.