The Dow posted its best day since April 9, 2025, climbing 1,569.40 points on the midterm result
US markets closed sharply higher on Wednesday, November 4, the day after Democrats completed a sweep of both chambers of Congress, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing up 1,569.40 points, or 3.03 percent, at 53,356.12.
The S&P 500 gained 1.58 percent to end at 7,688.62 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.44 percent to 25,736.51, CNBC reported.
The Dow posted its best day since April 9, 2025, when US President Donald Trump announced a pause on his reciprocal tariffs.
Reuters reported that Democrats seized control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, scoring wins in Republican strongholds for the first time in generations.
Trump told The New York Times he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results and told The Wall Street Journal that he and Republicans would work with Democrats, CNBC reported.
“The election introduces a degree of gridlock to the economic backdrop and that oftentimes is favorable for equity prices, and we are seeing some of that today,” Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at US Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis, told Reuters.
“Gridlock is good,” Jason Pride of Glenmede told Bloomberg, adding, “Markets have historically fared better when no single party can push through legislation on party-line votes.”
Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management, said “Earnings trump elections,” according to AP News.
Brent crude fell 8.7 percent to US$94.62 a barrel, AP News reported, after US Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the Republican losses, according to CNBC.
Lockheed Martin dropped 6.9 percent and Northrop Grumman 4.5 percent, per AP News, with Reuters reporting that Trump’s US$1.5tn defence budget request could now face a tougher road in Congress.
Microsoft rose 6.7 percent and Amazon.com added 6.1 percent, Reuters reported, while data centre operators fell, with Hut 8 down 23 percent and the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index hitting a six-month low, dropping 3.1 percent.
Nvidia sank 3.1 percent and CoreWeave dropped 9.9 percent, according to AP News.
“If you push out the pace or change the pace of the data center buildout, you begin to change the fundamental trajectory for many of those suppliers,” said Scott Chronert, head of US equity strategy at Citi Research, in comments carried by Reuters.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury dropped to 4.88 percent from 4.95 percent late Tuesday, AP News reported.
Bloomberg reported that the US dollar weakened the most in two months.
In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index closed up 809.12 points at 36,341.40 and the Canadian dollar traded for 71.63 cents US, compared with 71.46 cents US on Tuesday, The Canadian Press reported.
