With focus increasingly on US, markets remain in check

LONDON (AP) — European stock markets traded in fairly narrow ranges Tuesday ahead of a raft of U.S. economic news and uncertainty over the outcome of the country's presidential election.

Increasingly, the focus in markets has turned towards the U.S. not least because the presidential election next Tuesday between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appears to have tightened following last week's disclosure from the FBI that it had opened a new investigation into U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private email server.

Before Americans go to the polls, traders have a raft of economic data to digest this week, starting later with the monthly manufacturing report from the Institute for Supply Management.

The data week culminates Friday with the October nonfarm payrolls report, which is likely to cement market expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.

ANALYST TAKE: "October was a mixed month for global equities, positive for European and U.K. stocks but negative for US markets as the uncertainty over the outcome of the U.S. election continues to cap the upside," said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets.

Recent manufacturing data have shown a slight uptick in production that economists say could signal the stagnant economy is gaining strength.