Wall Street set to rise after Clinton seen winner of debate

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open higher on Monday after Democrat Hillary Clinton was widely seen as the winner of the second presidential debate.

A Clinton presidency would be more positive for the markets because her positions are more well known than those of her Republican rival Donald Trump, according to a Reuters poll.

A CNN/ORC snap poll of debate watchers found that 57 percent thought Clinton won the encounter, versus 34 percent for Trump.

Oil rose more than 1 percent, approaching one-year highs, as speculators raised bets that prices would gain on the back of an agreement among OPEC producers to rein in record output levels. [O/R]

"Investors will ponder the presidential debate and follow the events in the commodity markets, especially oil," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.

Wall Street slipped on Friday as the pound dropped and a weaker-than-expected U.S. payrolls number did little to dampen hopes of an interest rate hike by the end of this year.

Investors are also bracing for the third-quarter earnings season, which unofficially kicks off on Tuesday when aluminum producer Alcoa reports.

"The markets seem to be looking for a repeat of last quarter, with most companies exceeding Street consensus but obviously on a scaled back earnings growth," Cardillo said.

Earnings of S&P 500 companies are expected to drop 0.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The dollar, which has been swinging between gains and losses for the past five trading days, was up 0.2 percent against a basket of major currencies. The pound fell again on Monday.

The U.S. bond market was closed for the Columbus Day holiday.

Dow e-minis were up 73 points, or 0.4 percent, with 21,135 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 9.5 points, or 0.44 percent, with 145,847 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 20.5 points, or 0.42 percent, on volume of 18,817 contracts.

Shares of Twitter dropped 13.1 percent and were the top movers premarket after a Bloomberg report on Saturday that the social media company was unlikely to receive any bids.

Mylan soared 12.24 percent in heavy premarket trading. The drugmaker on Friday said it would pay $465 million to settle questions over whether it underpaid U.S. government healthcare programs by misclassifying its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment.

Electric carmaker Tesla was up 1.83 percent at $200.20 after Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company would not need to raise equity or corporate debt in the fourth quarter for its planned acquisition of SolarCity Corp, whose shares also rose.

Merck rose 3.2 percent after clinical data showed its Keytruda immunotherapy offered big benefits in previously untreated lung cancer patients, either when given on its own or with chemotherapy.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)