Dow Up 555 Points as Clarity Approaches

Wall Street posted solid gains on Election Day, with sharp rises in morning trading, sending the S&P 500 up 1.8%. More than anything, what investors hope for is a clear winner to emerge relatively soon from the election, the AP reports. Whether that’s President Trump or Joe Biden is secondary. But if Biden wins, as polls suggest, the thought is that could open the door to a big support package for the economy, particularly if the Democrats also take control of the Senate. Treasury yields also climbed Tuesday. The S&P 500 rose 58.92 points to 3,369.16. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 554.98, or 2.1%, to 27,480.03. The Nasdaq composite added 202.96, or 1.9%, to 11,160.57.

"The markets are neither red nor blue and today they’re decidedly green,” says Rod von Lipsey, managing director at UBS Private Wealth Management. What investors fear is the prospect of a contested election, one that drags on and injects even more uncertainty into markets. Much of Wall Street expects a sharp drop in stocks to happen in such a scenario. The future political makeup of the Senate is also another unknown factor throwing uncertainty into the markets, along with the eventual timing of a COVID-19 vaccine. "There’s a sense that we might get some clarity on the outcome of the direction of one or two wild cards that have been moving the market," von Lipsey said.

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