Reuters - International share indexes were generally down Wednesday as coronavirus infections rose fast in the U.S. and Europe and as uncertainty over next week's U.S. elections added to a "risk off" tone.

MSCI's ex-Japan Asia index fell 0.15% in early trade while Japan's Nikkei fell 0.6%.

Futures for U.S. S&P500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq all fell 0.5%-0.6% in Asia trade Wednesday - rattled by a news report that the France government may bring in a national lockdown from midnight Thursday.

The U.S., Russia, France and other countries have registered record infections in recent days and European governments have introduced new curbs to try to slow the outbreaks.

Data overnight Tuesday showed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in October, although other economic figures were mostly positive - with orders for capital goods hitting a six-year high.

The fall in U.S. stock futures followed a mixed session on Wall Street where the S&P 500 lost 0.30% on virus worries while the Nasdaq composite added 0.64%.

Microsoft kicked off reporting from big technology companies by beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue - helped by its cloud computing business which benefited from increased work-from-home arrangements. But its shares slipped 1.7% after the bell.

Apple Inc., Amazon.com and Google-parent Alphabet are among big technology companies reporting later this week.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. announced Tuesday it plans to acquire Xilinx Inc. in an all-stock deal valued at $35 billion, confirming recent speculation. AMD also delivered an early release of its third quarter financial results, which had been due to come out after the closing bell. The company delivered revenue of $2.8 billion compared with $1.8 billion a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting $2.56 billion in revenue.

Investors appeared content to steer clear of risk with looming uncertainty, headlined by the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election.

As former Vice President Joe Biden has enjoyed a consistent lead over President Donald Trump, market participants have been cautiously betting on his victory and possibly a "blue wave" outcome, where Democrats take back the Senate as well.

Still the presidential race is closer in battleground states that could determine the outcome, leaving market participants on edge.

"It appears the gap between Biden and Trump is shrinking a bit lately. In particular, Biden's lead in swing states doesn't look that different from (Democratic candidate) Hilary Clinton in 2016," Mizuho Securities market strategist Nobuhiko Kuramochi said.

"People still remember the 2016 experience and those who have bet on a blue wave are probably taking some profits now ahead of the event," he added.

Wall Street's volatility index, a measure of market expectations in share price swings, rose to 33.35, its highest in almost two months.

Some market players see that as a sign more market participants are wary of the possibility that the election outcome can be contested, possibly leaving markets in limbo for weeks.

That would likely further delay any negotiation on the economic relief package U.S. policymakers have been struggling to agree on. Trump acknowledged an economic relief package would likely come after the Nov. 3 election.

In the currency market, the euro depreciated on concerns about a possible lockdown in France, trading at $1.1779, down 0.15%. The yen is well supported at 104.42 yen per dollar.

Investors also bought back U.S. Treasurys, another safe-haven asset, pushing down their yields.

The benchmark 10-year yield dropped to 0.766%, down 1.2 basis point so far Wednesday and way below its four-and-a-half-month high of 0.872% Friday.

Gold was little changed at $1,906.0 an ounce. Oil prices gave up much of their gains the previous day as a jump in U.S. crude inventories and rising COVID-19 cases raised fears of an oversupply of oil and weak fuel demand. Brent crude was last trading down 1.9% at $40.42 a barrel while U.S. crude fell 2.3% to $38.67 per barrel.