Thursday, 05 Nov 2020 07:15 AM MYT
Both President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden still had paths to reach the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win as states kept counting mail-in ballots. Biden held a narrow lead in Wisconsin late yesterday while Trump’s campaign said it had filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin in an attempt to halt vote counting.
“Even if Joe Biden wins the Presidency, it looks like we are going to have a divided congress so the opportunity to have meaningful change at the fiscal level is pretty slim, and that is what is being priced into the back end of the market today,” said David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Boston.
The S&P healthcare index jumped to a record high, while the information technology sector also gained strongly, as a divided Congress means slimmer chances for heightened antitrust scrutiny, capital gains taxes and a restoration of parts of the Affordable Care Act. The healthcare index was on track for its biggest daily percentage gain in about five months.