U.S. stocks rallied sharply to close at record highs on Wednesday after Republican Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election in a stunning comeback four years after being voted out of the White House.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,508.05 points, or 3.57%, to 43,729.93, the S&P 500 gained 146.28 points, or 2.53%, to 5,929.04 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 544.29 points, or 2.95%, to 18,983.47.
Market Movers
Trump Media & Technology - Trump Media & Technology Group rose 5.9%, paring sharp gains of as much as 35% earlier in the session, after the U.S. election was called for Trump. Trump Media, which is majority owned by former President Trump and is the operator of the Truth Social site, meanwhile, surprised investors with its third-quarter results late Tuesday. The company posted a loss in the period of $19.2 million and revenue of $1 million. Trump Media’s operating loss in the period was $23.7 million.
Crypto stocks - Coinbase jumped 31.1%, MicroStrategy gained 13.2%, and Marathon Digital was up 19% after Bitcoin topped $76,000, a record high, as Trump declared victory.
Tesla - Tesla surged 14.8%. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, actively campaigned for Trump, spending millions of dollars to support Trump’s bid. Trump praised Musk early Wednesday. He called Musk “a character, he’s a special guy, he’s a super genius. We have to protect our geniuses—we don’t have that many of them.” Investors were focusing on the positive since Trump’s win likely will mean less support for electric vehicles.
Clean-energy stocks - First Solar dropped 10.1%, Enphase Energy tumbled 16.8%, and other clean-energy stocks fell with a Trump presidency being considered negative for renewable energy companies.
Bank stocks - Bank stocks surged. Analysts have said a second Trump presidency would resume friendlier regulations on Wall Street companies. Citigroup was up 8.4%, Wells Fargo jumped 13.1%, Bank of America rose 8.4%, JPMorgan Chase was up 11.5%, Goldman Sachs gained 13.1%, and Morgan Stanley rose 11.6%.
Discover Financial, Capital One - Discover Financial rose 20.2% and Capital One was up 15%. Trump’s victoryis expected to lead to reduced regulations on mergers.The $35 billion merger of the two companies was announced in February and has been scrutinized closely by regulators.
Super Micro Computer - Super Micro Computer tumbled 18.1% after the server maker issued afiscal first-quarter business updateand outlook that disappointed investors and said it was still unsure when it will file its latest annual report that was due in late August. Super Micro estimated first-quarter revenue at $5.9 billion to $6 billion, below analysts’ expectations of $6.44 billion. For the current second quarter ending Dec. 31, the company guided to revenue in the range of $5.5 billion to $6.1 billion in sales versus Wall Street estimates of $6.84 billion.
Nvidia - Nvidia rose 4.1%. It eclipsed Apple on Tuesday as the most valuable company in the U.S. As of Wednesday, it had a market cap of $3.571 trillion compared with Apple’s $3.366 trillion.
Exact Sciences - Exact Sciences sank 23.5% after the cancer-screening and diagnostics company said it expects fiscal-year revenue between $2.73 billion and $2.75 billion, down from a prior outlook of between $2.81 billion and $2.85 billion.
CVS Health - CVS Health was up 11.3% afterthird-quarter revenuerose 6.3% to $95.43 billion at the pharmacy and healthcare company, beating analysts’ estimates of $92.72 billion. The earnings report was the first with David Joyner, the company’s newly appointed CEO, at the helm.
Market News
Trump Wins, Harris Vows Peaceful Transfer of Power
Donald Trump has been elected United States president for a second term nearly four years after leaving office, with projections showing the Republican comfortably clearing the 270 electoral vote threshold required to win the White House.
His Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, has called him to congratulate him, says in a speech will help him with the transition and engage in a peaceful transfer of power.
Qualcomm Forecasts Beats Estimates
Chip designer Qualcomm on Wednesday forecast sales and profit in the current quarter would exceed Wall Street estimates as the company benefits a wave of launches of flagship Chinese smartphones, and its shares rose more than 6% in extended trading.
Qualcomm said it expects sales and adjusted profits for its fiscal first quarter, which will cover the holiday shopping season in U.S. and European markets, with a midpoint of $10.90 billion and $2.95 per share. Wall Street expected $10.59 billion and $2.86 per share, according to data from LSEG.
For the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 29, Qualcomm said sales and adjusted profits were $10.24 billion and $2.69 per share, beating analyst expectations of $9.91 billion and $2.56 per share.
