Stocks mostly rise, oil falls tracking China lockdown policy. Have a look on the facts regarding the matter here in this story.

The majority of stock markets increased on Monday, continuing the significant gains seen last week,

......while oil prices decreased as China reiterated its commitment to its costly zero-Covid policy.

Prior to this week's US midterm elections, the dollar declined versus some of its main competitors.

Last week, the world's stock markets and oil prices rose on expectations that Beijing will start to relax its anti-disease regulations.

However, the Chinese government declared on Saturday that it would "unwaveringly" adhere to its present strategy,

which calls for severe lockdowns, stringent quarantine, and testing protocols for even the tiniest clusters of cases.

Despite the official position, Iris Pang, chief economist for Greater China at ING Wholesale Banking, told AFP that

"there are still hopes in the market" that Beijing may ease Covid-19 limits in the upcoming months.

According to her, "Traders think that the Chinese government won't be able to maintain these current Covid measures forever, thus the only way forward is... weaker Covid measures."

Investors also view ongoing major events like the China International Import Expo in Shanghai as "a type of water-testing" by Beijing to see if illnesses and deaths drastically increase