By Brian Swint
Stocks and various sectors made different moves Wednesday after Donald Trump emerged the winner of the U.S. presidential election,
Here's how they were doing in early trading.
Autos
Trump was expected to be better for traditional car companies than Vice President Kamala Harris would have been. And indeed, auto stocks rallied early Wednesday.
Ford was up 3% in premarket trading, and Chevrolet manufacturer General Motors climbed 4.5%.
Trump said during the campaign that he was considering eliminating EV tax credits and has threatened to introduce higher tariffs, including on products from Mexico, where lots of cars sold in the U.S. are built.
Those policies would be positive for GM and Ford, as both companies sell a lot of gas-powered vehicles and make a lot more money selling traditional cars rather than EVs.
Meanwhile, Tesla stock soared 13% after Trump called the company's CEO Elon Musk a "genius" in a speech where he declared himself the election winner. Wedbush analysts said in a research note on Wednesday that a victory for Trump could harm the EV industry but boost Tesla, because Musk's company would have a clear competitive advantage in an environment where EVs aren't subsidized.
-- George Glover
Technology
This was one sector where some high-profile executives were clearly pulling for a Trump victory, including billionaires Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and owner of social-media platform X, and Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur backer behind PayPal and Palantir.
The largest tech companies were rallying. Google-parent Alphabet was climbing 2.1%, with investors perhaps hoping for an easing of antitrust pressures on the company. Microsoft and Amazon.com were also rising in line with the broader market.
However, Apple was only up 0.1% in premarket trading, lagging its tech peers and the wider market while Facebook-owner Meta Platforms was down 1.9%. Apple could be exposed to potential tariffs on imports from China, while Meta investors might be worried about competition from Trump's own Truth Social platform as well as the closeness of Musk to Trump.
On the hardware side of things, artificial-intelligence processor maker Nvidia was gaining 1.6%.
-- Adam Clark
Healthcare
Companies with high exposure to Medicare Advantage -- the government-funded health program for seniors -- rose in premarket trading. Trump is expected to be notably softer than Harris on the scheme, which he championed in his previous term as president.
Humana, which is nearly a Medicare Advantage pure-play, rose almost 7.5%. UnitedHealth Group jumped 6.3%, while CVS Health rose in line with the market..
On the other hand, companies that depend on Affordable Care Act subsidies, supported by the federal government in recent years, unsurprisingly fell. Oscar Health stock dropped 16%.
-- Elsa Ohlen
Banks
Banks and financial services stocks were rising early Wednesday.
Principal Financial Group was one of the biggest movers in the premarket, gaining 16%.
The lift is coming from optimism that Trump will ease regulation on financial firms and allow mergers and acquisitions in the sector.
Wells Fargo was up 8.4%, Bank of America added 8.6%, and JPMorgan Chase rose 7.8%.
Regional banks were expected to benefit from more protection had Vice President Kamala Harris won the election. But they were rising, too -- the iShares Regional Banks exchange-traded fund jumped 9.7%.
-- Brian Swint
Energy
Trump has said he wants to unleash more drilling in the U.S., and the biggest drillers were gaining even though crude prices were falling early Wednesday.
Usually lower oil prices hurt shares of the companies that specialize in selling it, but not this time. Crude was being pushed down by the rising dollar as -- the stronger currency makes oil more expensive for overseas buyers.
But investors also expect Trump to be kind to the fossil fuel industry, keeping regulation and taxes low. Exxon, the biggest U.S. oil company, was up 3.5% in the premarket, and Chevron gained 2.9%.
Smaller producers also benefited. Devon Energy rose 2.2%, Diamondback added 3.1%, and Occidental Petroleum increased 2.6%.
-- Adam Clark and Brian Swint
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 06, 2024 08:08 ET (13:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
