By Leah Schnurr

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks climbed on Tuesday as Americans began voting in the race for the White House, while investors picked up shares trading around five-year lows amid further signs of easing in credit markets. MasterCard Inc, the world's second-largest card network, rose more than 10 percent after the company reported better-than-expected earnings late on Monday. Dow component American Express gained 5 percent.
Economic bellwether General Electric was the biggest boost on the Dow, rising 7 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported the Treasury Department is considering using more of its $700 billion rescue package to buy stakes in a wide range of financial companies, such as GE's GE Capital unit.
The interest rates banks charge each other for short term loans also fell again, providing further hope that measures to shore up the credit markets are taking hold.
But the presidential election was first and foremost on investors' minds, with market watchers noting there was some relief that the final outcome was within reach.
"I think the election is overriding everything," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.
"There's people thinking once the election is over, one of the unknowns of the market will be taken out - the market hates uncertainty."
GE gained 6.9 percent to $20.63. A spokesman for the company said that an investment from Treasury was not something GE expected, and an investment would be evaluated if it was offered.
CIT Group, which was also mentioned in the Wall Street Journal's report, shot up 29 percent at $5.83.
MasterCard was up 10.6 percent at $159.11, while American Express rose 5.1 percent to $29.75.
Archer Daniels Midland Co jumped 4.2 percent to $3.76 after it posted a sharply higher profit, helped in part by higher selling prices.
On the Nasdaq, Microsoft was among the biggest boosters, rising 2.3 percent to $23.13.
In economic news, data showed that new orders received by U.S. factories took a surprisingly steep tumble for a second month in a row during September, but the markets largely shrugged off the data.
"Even though they were worse than anticipated, the market didn't seem to budge off of it, which is a good thing when it stops going down on bad news," said Saluzzi.
Also helping sentiment, Australia's central bank cut interest rates by a bigger-than-expected 3/4 point raising hopes of further global efforts to ease an economic slowdown.
Central banks in the euro zone and the Bank of England meet later in the week and could add to global attempts to lower the cost of borrowing.

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