U.S. stock futures rose slightly in overnight trading on Wednesday as investors digested the likely event of a Democratic held Congress and continued to shrug off riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Dow Jones Industrial average futures rose 58 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.25% and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.35%.
Markets were largely unaffected by the chaos in Washington Wednesday caused by pro-Trump rioters at the U.S. Capitol. Lawmakers had just started the procedural process of counting the Electoral College votes and formally declaring President-elect Joe Biden the winner, when protesters stormed the chamber.
U.S. officials later said on Wednesday evening the Capitol building was secure after the protestors were cleared. Congress reconvened and continued to the process to confirm Biden’s win on Wednesday evening.
“The strength of the country is our institutions and our laws,” Ed Keon of QMA told CNBC. “Seeing this is disheartening but we will prevail and I think that’s the message of the markets.”
“I think the reason the markets aren’t too flummoxed is it’s not going to change the transition of power,” Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors co-founder, added.
On Wednesday, U.S. equities rose as Georgia’s Senate runoff election results rolled in. Minutes after the closing bell, NBC projected that Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican David Perdue. This comes after NBC earlier projected Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in their runoff.
Georgia’s election results create a 50-50 Senate that Democrats will control, due to the tiebreaking vote in Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. It is widely expected that a Democrat-held Senate would push for a more robust stimulus package, speculation which boosted equities on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more than 400 points or 1.4% to close at a record high. The S&P 500 rose 0.57%, hitting an intraday all-time high during the session. The two averages closed off their highs amid the riots however.
The Nasdaq Composite was the relative underperformer, dipping 0.6% as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet all closed lower.
The small cap benchmark Russell 2000 jumped nearly 4% to top the 2,050 level on hopes of further fiscal aid.
The 10-year Treasury yield broke above 1% for the first time since the pandemic-triggered rout in March late on Tuesday. The jump in yields triggered a rally in bank stocks on Wednesday.
Amid the chaos, cryptocurrency Bitcoin topped $36,000.
The Labor Department releases last week’s jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting 815,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week, compared to the previous week’s 787,000 claims.
Bed Bath & Beyond, Constellation Brands, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Conagra report quarterly earnings before the bell on Thursday. Chipmaker Micron reports after the bell.
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