, but votes were still being counted in key states, including Pennsylvania. Both Biden and Trump have said they are confident they are winning.Before the election, some investors had been betting on a 'blue wave,' with the focus on the prospect of a huge stimulus program that would have boosted value stocks, small caps, and alternate energy.
Two sectors helped by infrastructure spending lagged. Industrials were up just 0.8% and materials were down 0.3%. In 2016, stocks surged when Donald Trump won the presidency on his tax and economic policies, despite conventional thinking that the market could crash if he beat Hilary Clinton. Now that his re-election is uncertain, stocks are again higher, despite expectations an unclear election result would hurt the stock market.
"The election is not out of the woods yet. The market needs to take a breather and let it play out a little bit," said Schumacher. The markets have been repeatedly disappointed by a lack of a stimulus deal, so that was one Democratic policy that had viewed as positive by the stock market. The White House had been working out a compromise with House Democrats towards a large $2 trillion stimulus proposal, but the effort stalled ahead of the election. Senate Republicans sought a much smaller package.
"92 years worth of data show that in divided government years, the average return is 6.1% versus unified government years at 9.3%," said Julian Emanuel, head of equities and derivatives strategy at BTIG. "Who is president matters to the process itself. Maintaining the integrity of the voting and counting process and the decision of one part or the other to concede and that happening sooner rather than later is important.
Its a done deal for biden.
Ok