Stock Market Today: Stocks soar to record highs as Trump wins stunning White House return
U.S. stocks soared in early Wednesday trading, while the dollar scaled to a fresh four-month high on foreign exchange markets and Treasury bonds tumbled, as former President Donald Trump looked almost certain to capture the 2024 election and return to the White House with a Republican-controlled Congress.
The market’s benchmark volatility gauge, the CBOE Group’s VIX index, fell sharply in the wake of former President Trump’s election victory as the decisive nature of the win, and the reduced chance of it being contested, added a further tailwind to U.S. stocks.
The VIX was last marked 21.6% lower in mid-morning trade at $16.07 each, the lowest since late September and a level that suggests traders are expecting daily swings of around 1%, or 59 points, for the S&P 500 over the next 30 days.
The S&P 500 was marked 120 points, or 2.08% higher in the opening minutes of trading, having hit a record of 5,905.60 points just after the bell, with the Nasdaq surging 402 points, or 2.12%
The Dow was up 1,314 points, and a fresh record high of 43,570.09 points while the mid-cap Russell 2000 gain 98 points or 4.38%.
Bond markets continue to react sharply to former President Trump’s decisive victory, which is likely to include massive tax cuts that could swell the federal budget, as well as trade tariffs that could stoke inflation pressures.
Much will depend on the composition of the House for the former, but the latter is left largely up to the President’s discretion and is already having an impact on Federal Reserve rate cut bets.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were last marked 15 basis points higher than yesterday’s levels and changing hands at a July 1 peak of 4.451%. Longer-dated 30-year bonds, meanwhile, had their biggest yield gain in four years and were last marked at a late May high of 4.64%.
Related: Trump election victory could put Fed interest rate cuts at risk
Updated at 8:25 AM EST
Nvidia (NVDA) shares, like most of the megacap tech stocks, is moving higher in early trading and looks set to cement its place as the world’s most valuable company, just ahead of Apple (AAPL) in early Wednesday trading.
Nvidia was last marked 1.15% higher at $141.52 each, a move that implies a market cap of around $3.47 trillion, with Apple marked 0.47% higher at $224.49 each, with a market value of around $3.39 trillion.
Updated at 7:26 AM EST
So-called Trump Trade stocks, which are seen as immediate beneficiaries to both a decisive presidential victory and a Republican-dominated Congress, are powering early gains, with Trump Media & Technology (DJT) shares leading the way.
The parent of Truth Social, the former president’s social-media network, was marked 38% higher, on around 22.5 million shares in premarket volume, and was expected to open at $46.90.
Tesla shares were also active, rising nearly 13% to the highest levels since July 2023, while bank stocks such as JP Morgan Chase (JPM) , Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC) all gained between 6% and 8% in heavy premarket dealing.
Another interesting early mover is Albertsons (ACI) , which was last marked 3.2% higher at $19.13, likely on the back of bets that its FTC-challenged merger with Kroger (KR) may find a more favorable regulatory backdrop under a Trump administration.
Related: Tesla stock soars as markets reprice key ‘Trump Trade’ bet
Updated at 5:51 AM EST
Nearly all the major U.S. media outlets have declared victory for Donald Trump, with the former president now projected to have won 276 Electoral College votes in a stunning return to the White House.
Republican lawmakers are also on pace to win back control of the Senate and look set to hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
Updated at 4:49 AM EST
Stock futures are powering higher as returns continue to suggest a decisive Trump victory, with the S&P 500 called 136 points higher and the Dow poised for a massive gain of around 1,130 points.
Global markets are also reacting to the surprise election results, with Europe’s Stoxx 600 benchmark rising 1.7% in early Frankfurt trading and Britain’s FTSE 100 rising 1.1% in London.
Japan’s Nikkei 225, meanwhile, rose 2.61% to close at a three-week high of 39,480.67 points. China stocks, by contrast, were down across the board, with the CSI 300 falling 0.55 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slumping 2.23%.
Stock Market Today
Trump, 78, declared victory at around 2:30 am Eastern Time after the Associated Press called Pennsylvania in his favor, putting him just shy of the 270-seat Electoral College threshold that would sweep him into the White House. He is also on track to possibly win the popular vote.
Projections also suggest that Republican lawmakers would retake control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, setting up a so-called red wave that would enable his economic agenda to move quickly to fruition when he assumes office in late January as the 47th president.
“America have given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump told his supporters. “This was the greatest political movement of all time.”
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Stock futures reacted to the seemingly decisive win, particularly given the nature of House and Senate races, while markets around the world braced for the impact of Trump’s promised tariff and trade protection policies under a new administration.
The S&P 500 looks set to open at a fresh all-time high, with futures contracts tied to the benchmark indicating an opening bell gain of around 112 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, was last called more than 950 points higher, a move that would put it over the 43,000 point mark.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, was marked 332 points higher as traders bet that fewer regulatory hurdles would stand in the way of the megacap tech growth story.
Treasury bond yields, however, were also moving sharply higher, with benchmark 10-year note yields rising to 4.471% and 2-year paper trading at 4.241%.
More Wall Street Analysts:
“Market reaction is large but orderly – we have to remember that markets have been putting on the Trump 2.0 trade directionally since early October,” said John Hardy, chief macro strategist at Saxo Bank.
“So the coming hours and days will tell is the degree to which we have priced in a lot of what is to come if the scenario is fully realized.”
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 1.55% higher at 105.023, the highest since early July.
Bitcoin prices, meanwhile, surged past the $75,000 mark for the first time on record, as investors bet that a Trump administration would bring favorable regulation for the cryptocurrency sector.
The world’s biggest digital currency was last marked 5.1% higher at $72,922.94 each.
Related: Betting on interest rate cuts will be trickier in 2025
Currencies seen as being exposed to Trump’s planned tariffs were also on the move, with the euro falling 1.4% to 1.0736 against the greenback and the Mexican peso falling to the lowest levels in more than two years at 20.635 against the dollar.
“European politicians will be waking up to face their fears this Wednesday morning,” said ING’s global head of markets, Chris Turner.
“As it now seems likely now that Trump will take the presidency with a strong popular mandate, his trade agenda of leveling the playing field will weigh heavily on the open economy of continental Europe.”
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks