Watch for pressure on the handling of the Iran war and on immigration policies, one analyst says

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, gives a thumbs up as he departs a polling location on Tuesday. He appears to be set to become the next Senate majority leader after his party's wins in the midterm elections.

Democrats will take over control of the U.S. Senate two years into President Donald Trump's second term, in a shift that looks likely to have effects on Americans' investments and their wallets.

The Associated Press said the party has won enough Senate seats to run that chamber of Congress, as results from the midterm elections continue to be tabulated.

The fight for a House majority was still not called by the AP, but the Senate result by itself is already enough to deliver a new period of divided government in Washington. And other news outlets, such as CNN and NBC News, have projected that the House has flipped blue.

Democratic lawmakers are expected to ramp up challenges to Trump's handling of his Iran war, in part to address the higher prices for gasoline and diesel that have stemmed from that conflict.

The party also looks likely to push a significant healthcare-focused bill in a bid to respond to Americans' concerns about medical costs. In addition, some analysts have predicted that Democrats will take shots at Trump's import taxes, starting with his tariffs on Canadian goods.

Dean Stansel, a research professor at the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom at Southern Methodist University's business school, said he's looking for a possible shift in the handling of the Iran war and potential changes to the Trump administration's immigration policies that have restricted the supply of labor.

"There's just hasn't been the level of pushback on some of the things being done like the war in Iran. I think you will see that change pretty dramatically when the new Congress takes office," Stansel told MarketWatch.

"Democrats do tend to be less anti-immigration in most cases, and so I have some optimism that there might be some more sensible policy put in place in that department, which would directly affect this affordability and inflation issue that voters are so concerned about," the SMU professor also said. He said he was less optimistic about changes to Trump's import taxes, saying he's "just not so sure that the Democrats are that staunchly anti-tariff, compared to Republicans."

These public companies look set for scrutiny

For months, Democrats have appeared on track to take control of at least one chamber of Congress, and that's led analysts to predict that publicly traded companies will be dealing with extra attention - and not the kind that lifts stock prices.

Pharmaceutical companies that have made drug-pricing deals with the Trump administration are expected to face new scrutiny. In addition, companies that have granted equity stakes to the Trump administration, such as Intel (INTC), are likely targets for investigation, as are companies that have donated to Trump's controversial White House ballroom project. Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL) and Meta (META) are among the corporate donors to that project.

Companies working in artificial intelligence such as Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) could face new probes from congressional committees, as could oil companies if the Iran war drags on and fuel prices remain elevated. Trump ally Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX (SPCX) and Tesla (TSLA), appears poised to face increased scrutiny as well.

Republicans have had unified control of the House, Senate and White House since the 2024 election, and a key achievement was last year's enactment of their "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that delivered tax breaks for companies and individuals. Before the 2024 election, there had been divided government in the wake of the 2022 midterms, when Republicans won the House two years into the Biden era while Democrats kept their grip on the Senate.

Stock futures (ES00) (YM00) were negative early Wednesday but had recovered some ground as markets were getting used to a Democratic midterm wave.

-Victor Reklaitis