World shares mostly advance after a decline on Wall Street, and oil
prices fall more than 1%
[October 26, 2026] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
World shares were mostly higher Monday and oil prices fell after rising
last week to their highest level in more than four years.
Investors were bracing for earnings reports of big companies and central
bank decisions this week that could shake markets, analysts said.
Several influential AI-related companies report their latest financial
results this week, including Google’s parent, Alphabet, along with
Microsoft and Amazon.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX surged 0.7% to 25,363.59, while
the CAC 40 in Paris picked up 0.9% to 7,848.62. Britain's FTSE 100 added
0.5% to 10,742.88.
The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average gained 0.4%.
Asian markets started the day off with losses, though some benchmarks
bounced back.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.8% to 62,189.65 as shares of computer
chipmakers and other tech firms came under renewed selling pressure.
Advantest, which makes testing equipment for computer chips, fell 3.9%,
while chip- and flat-panel production manufacturer Tokyo Electron lost
3.7%.
The Bank of Japan is due to announce a decision on its key interest rate
later in the week.
The Kospi in Seoul dropped 1.5% to 5,469.47. Memory chipmaker Samsung
Electronics lost 1.1%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng picked up 0.5% to 23,211.81, while the
Shanghai Composite index rebounded from early losses to gain 0.2%,
closing at 3,697.52.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 likewise reversed its losses to advance 0.2%, to
8,809.90.
The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.7% to
$109.86 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude sank 2.1% to $101.08 a barrel.
On Friday, the price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 3.1% to settle at
$116.72, its highest level since June 2022. It has surged from less than
$97 since early October.
Also Friday, the S&P 500 fell 0.5%, adding to its decline from a day
before and logging its second-straight weekly loss. The Dow fell 1.2%,
and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2%.
Several AI-related companies rallied, helping ease some of the impact
from the broader market slide.
Stocks that have benefited from the frenzy over AI have been buffeted by
waves of selling as investors fret over whether their high prices are
justified. Many of those companies have been borrowing to fund
investments in AI technology and high interest rates are making those
loans more expensive.
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A person walks past an electronic stock board displaying Japan's
Nikkei index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026.
(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
 Market players are closely watching
corporate earnings, looking for a better sense of whether those
investments are likely to pay off.
“This week is less about broad conviction and more about proof. Big
Tech now has to show that the spending binge still deserves the
market’s faith," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a
commentary.
“Investors want proof now. They want to know whether the billions
going into the compute buildout are building a durable earnings
machine or just a shinier version of the same old capex furnace,” he
said.
American Express slumped 3.7%, one of several financial stocks that
lost ground, despite reporting profits for its most recent quarter
that beat analysts' forecasts. The company did announce its first
major job cuts in roughly a decade.
Treasury yields in the U.S. edged higher following sharp drops on
Thursday.
Yields have been rising globally, partly over worries about
governments taking on too much debt. Inflation also remains a
concern and is stubbornly well above 3% in the U.S. That prompted
the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate at its last
meeting in an effort to cool inflation.
Wall Street expects the central bank to hold rates steady at its
meeting this week, but is leaning heavily toward another rate hike
in December.
This week also will bring several big economic updates, including
the Fed's preferred measure of inflation. The personal consumption
expenditures index, or PCE, is expected to show that inflation rose
at a 3.7% rate in September, sharply above the Fed's 2% target.
The U.S. war with Iran has severely cut the world's oil supply,
driving energy prices higher and fueling a sharp jump in the cost of
everything from gasoline to food and clothes.
In other dealings early Monday, the dollar rose to 157.28 Japanese
yen from 156.99 yen. The euro fell to $1.1212 from $1.1223.
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