The Dow jumped 3.03% on Wednesday to 53,356, its biggest post-midterm gain in 44 years. The last time the index rose this much after a midterm was November 1982.
The S&P 500 added 1.58% to 7,689. Democrats' sweep of both chambers removed election uncertainty, and one session repriced oil, bonds, and the AI buildout.
WTI crude settled at $88.12, down 8.3%, its biggest daily drop since April. Brent fell 8.7% to $94.62 on ICE, below $100 for the first time since October 7.
VP Vance blamed the Iran war for the GOP's losses. Traders read the remark as the strongest signal yet that pressure to end the conflict will grow.
Energy fell 4.8%, the worst S&P 500 sector. The three-day decline of roughly 15% puts WTI on track for its largest one-week decline since 2020, pricing in a diplomatic outcome that has not materialized.
The election that sank oil split the tech trade. Apple rose 5.3% to a record $349.51 and Microsoft gained 6.7%.
Nvidia fell 3.2% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 3.1% to a six-month low. Democrats won the Texas governor's race on a data center moratorium pledge.
The Nasdaq gained 1.44% to 25,737 but trailed the Dow by a full point. Qualcomm's 6% after-hours slide on soft Q1 guidance may extend chip selling Thursday.
Falling crude reinforced a broad bond rally. The 10-year yield fell about 5 basis points to 4.90%, the 2-year to 4.58%, and the 30-year to 5.28%.
Old wires are slowing down AI.
LIGHT might fix it.
What’s bringing top AI companies together? Photonics — the tech that sends data through light instead of old copper wires. It’s why Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI have joined forces on an open standard for optical AI connections.
In a new video briefing, former Wall Street exec Jason Bodner explains what it means for investors, and his top stock to buy now.
Gold jumped roughly 3% to about $4,050 per ounce, reclaiming the $4,000 level lost last week. The DXY slipped 0.55% to 101.31, and the VIX fell 20% to 16.61.
After past midterms, 10-year yields have fallen 20 to 25 basis points over three months on average. Today's productivity data tests whether that pattern holds.
ISM services eased to 54.5 in October from 54.9, just below the 54.8 consensus. New orders fell 3.9 points to 55.9, well below the 59.5 expected.
Prices fell to 73.0. That combination, softening demand with sticky costs, complicates the rate outlook behind Wednesday's bond rally.
ADP added 86,000 private-sector jobs in October, above the 67,000 consensus. Friday's payrolls, with consensus near 62,000, carry more weight.
Q3 preliminary productivity and unit labor costs arrive at 8:30 a.m. ET from the BLS, alongside weekly jobless claims.
Q2 productivity ran 1.4%. A soft print would push unit labor costs higher and pressure the bond bid.
Claims consensus is 196,000, up from last week's 194,000.
After Wednesday's close, AppLovin posted record Q3 revenue of $2.18 billion, up 55% year over year. The result tests whether the chip selloff discounted AI earnings too broadly.
