Stocks ripped higher on Wednesday as a decisive victory by Democrats in the U.S. midterm elections — and President Donald Trump’s acceptance of the results — removed political uncertainty risk hanging over Wall Street.
Democrats won majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate, and scored victories in key gubernatorial races like Texas. The Democrats will now be a check on the policies of Trump, who’s enacted business-friendly tax cuts, while also pursuing tariffs and a war in Iran that’s boosted inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average began the session trading more than 1,000 points higher.
Trump told the New York Times he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results and told the Wall Street Journal he and Republicans would work with Democrats.
The rebound “was in part due to the president’s initial tone and reaction to the results,” said Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “Still more uncertainty looms, but one thing is certain, there will be gridlock and historically this is good for the market.”
Shares linked to the economy that could benefit from a more stable environment led the early gains. Walmart added 2%, while Bank of America rose 1.9% as investors looked for stocks outside of technology.
Shares that could benefit directly from Democratic policies, or an end to tougher Trump actions, gained. Health insurers and hospital operators advanced, with United Health up 1.4%, Molina Healthcare rising 6.3%, Centene adding 4.7% and HCA Healthcare up 1.44%. The Invesco Solar ETF jumped 5%.
Heading into the election investors worried a Democratic sweep could weigh on some areas of the market, especially stocks related to the artificial intelligence build-out. Investors feared a big Democratic win could mean more restrictions on data centers nationwide. The Texas governor win by Gina Hinojosa, who’s pledged an immediate moratorium in the key data center hub, added to the fears Wednesday.
Shares of Oracle and CoreWeave were headed lower Wednesday, along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is headquartered in Texas.
Another reason for the bullish sentiment Wednesday morning was that history shows the market does well under a divided government, where fewer policies and regulations are able to interfere with the business outlook.
Andrew Slimmon of Morgan Stanley Investment Management said the markets “like gridlock — they don’t like a party with too much power.”