Stocks surged on Wednesday following a chaotic night in the markets, which ended with a surprise victory for Donald Trump in the US presidential election.
In the final hour of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 312 points to cross its prior record high on a closing basis of 18,613.52.
Drug stocks and private-prison stocks soared, while gun stocks plummeted and Obamacare stocks got slammed.
As for why stocks bounced back so quickly from the night before, Julian Jessop of Capital Economics argued in a note that there could be various factors including underlying fundamentals, the market precedent set by Brexit, and the fact that “there are hopes that the checks and balances in the US political system will prevent [Trump] from doing that much too radical anyway in terms of domestic policy, especially fiscal policy.”
First up, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 18,589.69, +256.95, (+1.40%) S&P 500: 2,163.26, +23.70, (+1.11%) Nasdaq: 5,163.26, +57.58, (+1.11%) WTI crude oil: $45.37, +$0.39, (+0.87%)
While stocks bounced back quickly, the Mexican peso wasn't so lucky. The currency was down by about 8% against the dollar around 3:20 p.m. ET, after being down by as much as 13% late on Tuesday night. Gold didn't fare so well, either. The shiny metal dipped by about $1.50 an ounce to about $1,273 an ounce around 2:30 p.m. ET, well off the high of roughly $1,334 an ounce at roughly 12:00 a.m. ET. Trump's election has Wall Street questioning the future of the Federal Reserve. Jefferies economist Sean Darby said that in terms of possible problems for the economy, going forward the "main risk is monetary policy uncertainty." Wall Street's biggest bull slashes his year-end target for stocks after Trump's win. In a note on Wednesday, Fundstrat co-founder and strategist Tom Lee said he lowered his target to 2,225 from 2,325. His prior target was the most bullish among equity strategists at major firms. Carl Icahn loaded up on $1 billion worth of stocks during the market's election night crash, he said during an interview with Bloomberg. "I saw that market going down, the insanity," the hedge fund titan told CNBC. "So I left the Trump party and went home and bought a lot of stock in the overnight market." Treasurys staged a massive reversal. After it was clear that Trump was indeed victorious, vicious selling took hold across the complex and has continued throughout the entire US session.
ADDITIONALLY:
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