While you were sleeping: UPDATED Dow jumps 371 points with likely Clinton win

Equities on both sides of the Atlantic jumped after polls indicated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is on track to clinch the US presidential election.

Mrs Clinton is ahead of Republican rival Donald Trump, 44% to 41%, when third-party candidates are included, according to the final Bloomberg Politics national poll before Tuesday's election.

At least five major polls on Monday showed Mrs Clinton in the lead, according to Reuters.

The FBI on Sunday said it has no reason to pursue criminal charges against Mrs Clinton over the handling of her emails, lifting a cloud that it had placed on her campaign a little more than a week ago.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average immediately rose more than 300 points at the opening and remained above that level for the rest of the session. At the close it was 18,259.60, up 371.32 points or 2.1%.

The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 2.4% to 5166.17 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 2.2% to 2131.52.

The rally ended nine sessions of losses – the longest in 36 years – as fears of an upset Trump victory dissipated. 

"We've been down nine straight days as concerns over a potential Trump victory put a lot of caution in the market," Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, told Bloomberg.

"Some of that is being relieved with the comments from the FBI about the Clinton email investigations."

The Dow's rise was led by UnitedHealth Group and Microsoft, up 3.3% and 3% respectively. All 30 members of the Dow traded higher.

US dollar strengthens
The US dollar also strengthened, as a Clinton victory underpins expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at next month's meeting.

"Our base case is that Mrs Clinton wins and the [US] dollar strengthens" into the Federal Reserve meeting in December, Sydney-based Westpac Banking Corp head of financial-markets strategy Robert Rennie told Bloomberg.

"Clearly, markets appear to have embraced that view today."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a 1.5% gain from the previous close.

The UK's FTSE 100 Index added 1.7%, Germany's DAX Index jumped 1.9%, while France's CAC 40 Index also increased 1.9%.

Banks advanced, bolstered by gains in HSBC Holdings shares as Europe's largest bank posted better than expected earnings. The stock closed 4.6% higher in London.

Meanwhile, Opec said Russia, the world's biggest energy producer, was "on board" with an agreement to curb crude oil production.

"We as Opec remain committed to the Algiers accord ... we remain committed to the implementation," secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo said on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference.

"I have heard from the highest quarters in Moscow that Russia is on board," he said.

US crude oil gained 1.1% to $US44.54 a barrel. As investors returned to riskier assets, gold fell 1.9% to $US1,278.30 an ounce, while the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note rose to 1.827% from 1.783% on Friday.

(BusinessDesk)