US Stock Market: Wall Street Ticks Higher on Election Day

New York: US stock indexes are ticking higher Tuesday as voters he to polls on last day of presidential election.

US Stock Market

S&P 500 was up 0.4 per cent in early tring, inching closer to its record set last month. Dow Jones Industrial Aver was up 66 points, or 0.2 per cent, as of 9.35 am Eastern time, and Nasdaq composite was 0.6 per cent higher.

Excitement about artificial-intelligence boom helped lift Wall Street, as it has for much of last year. Software company Palantir Techlogies jumped 16.7 per cent after delivering bigger profit and revenue than analysts expected for latest quarter.

It's an industry kwn for thinking and talking big, and CEO Alexander Karp said, “We absolutely eviscerated this quarter, driven by unrelenting AI demand that won't slow down.” Boeing was edging up by 0.1 per cent after its factory workers who h been on strike voted to accept aero giant's latest contract offer. ratification clears way for Boeing to restart Pacific rthwest assembly lines that walkout idled for 53 days and resume production of its bestselling airliner.

y helped offset a 5.2 per cent drop for Wynn Resorts after casi operator's results for latest quarter fell short of analysts' forecasts.

US Elections 2024

main event, though, is election, even if result may t be kwn for days, weeks or months as officials count all votes. Such uncertainty could upset markets, along with an upcoming meeting by Federal Reserve on interest rates later this week. widespre expectation is for it to cut its main interest rate for a second straight time.

Despite all uncertainty heing into final day of voting, many professional investors suggest keeping focus on long term and what corporate profits will do over next few years and a dece. Stocks have historically tended to rise regardless of which party wins White House.

S&P 500 has risen in 73 per cent of years where a Democrat was president and 70 per cent of years when a Republican was nation's chief executive, from 1945 through late last month, according to Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.

US stock market has tended to rise more in magnitude when Democrats have been president, in part because a loss under George W. Bush's term hurt Republican's aver. Bush took over as dot-com bubble was deflating and exited office when 2008 global financial crisis and Great Recession were devastating markets.

Besides who will be president, or questions hanging over market include wher White House will be working with a unified Congress or one split by political parties, as well as wher results will be contested.

general hope among investors is often for split control of US government because that's more likely to keep status quo and avoid big changes that could drive nation's debt much, much higher.

As for a contested election, Wall Street has some precedence to look back to. In 2000, S&P 500 dropped 5 per cent in about five weeks after Election Day before Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush. That, though, also happened during near-halving of S&P 500 from March 2000 to October 2002 as dot-com bubble deflated.

Four years ago, S&P 500 rose day after polls closed, even though a winner wasn't clear yet. And it kept going higher even after former President Donald Trump refused to concede and challenged results, creating plenty of uncertainty. A large part of that rally was due to excitement about potential for a vaccine for COVID-19, which h just shut down global ecomy.

In bond market, yield on 10-year Treasury rose to 4.31 per cent from 4.29 per cent late Monday.

In stock markets abro, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia. moves were mostly modest outside of jumps of 2.3 per cent in Shanghai and 2.1 per cent in Hong Kong.