Wall Street cheered the Blue Wave that put Democrats in control of both the Senate and Housewith major market indexes and media stocks posting gains Wednesday morning after the midterm elections.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared over 1,100 points in early trading, up 2.2%, to nearly 53,000, while the Nasdaq Composite index was up 2.4%. Analysts said the Democrats’ sweeping congressional win cleared away political uncertainty — and investors were bullish on the likely gridlock in D.C. keeping policies unchanged.
“Still more uncertainty looms, but one thing is certain, there will be gridlock and historically this is good for the market,” Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, told CNBC. Woods said the market uptick also partly stemmed from President Donald Trump’s “initial tone and reaction to the results,” after Trump told the New York Times he would accept the midterm election results.
As of Wednesday morning, Democrats held a 54-44 edge in the Senate over Republicans, with two races (in Mississippi and Alaska) yet to be called, according to the AP. In the House, Dems had secured 228 seats — giving the party a clear majority — and the GOP stood at 139, with outcomes in 68 races still undetermined.
Media stocks that gained in early trading the morning after the midterms included Netflix (+4%), Comcast (+4%), Disney (+3.8%), Skydance (+2.8%) and Fox Corp. (+2.4%).
Big tech stocks — despite analysts warning that Democratic majorities in Congress could create headwinds for AI data center buildouts — also rose: Apple (+6%) Amazon (7.6%), Alphabet (+4.9%) and Meta (+2.4%) all were trending higher.
Opposition to massive data center projects became a key issue in the midterms. While some Democratic efforts to curb data center buildouts may be realized, “Our base case is that the data centers are going to be built and delays are already part of life for construction projects,” Jonathan Pingle, chief U.S. economist for UBS, said in a Nov. 4 research note on the elections. “We expect that it may be difficult to come to agreement at the federal level to meaningfully restrain the data center buildout and heavily regulate AI, in particular since the White House has been opposed to doing so.”
Not all stocks got a boost. Shares of Elon Musk’s SpaceX were down 1.3% in morning trading and Tesla’s stock was off -2.4%. Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual, spent at least $474 million backing Republican candidates, per CNBCincluding $224 million toward the campaign of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton in the contest for the open Senate seat in Texas — which Democrat James Talarico won by a 12-point margin. Voters in Texas also elected Democratic contender Gina Hinojosa governor, who unseated incumbent GOP Gov. Greg Abbott.
“Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time,” Musk posted on X late Tuesday night, followed by a shrug emoji.
Also falling post-election were shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the operator of Truth Social (Trump’s primary social media platform). TMTG stock was trading down more than 10% in Wednesday morning trading, pushing its market cap under $1.5 billion. The Trump family trust owns 41% of Trump Media, Reuters reported last month.
Source: variety.com
