Topline
Stocks skyrocketed across the board Wednesday as Wall Street reacted positively to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, setting numerous major milestones as stocks already traded at near record levels.
A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange following Trump’s win.
Key Facts
All three major U.S. indexes jumped to respective records Wednesday: The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up as much as 3.5%, or almost 1,500 points to a new intraday high at 43,711, the bellwether S&P 500 soared 2.3% to more than 5,900 and the tech-concentrated Nasdaq rose 2.7% to a record 18,954.
That’s the Dow’s largest point-gain since April 2020 and percentage advance since Nov. 2022, the S&P’s steepest percentage jump since Nov. 2022 and the Nasdaq’s since August, while the Russell 2000, which tracks 2,000 smaller companies with a median market capitalization of $1 billion, enjoyed its best day since November 2023, with a 5% rally.
Ten of the S&P’s 13 sectors rose, while financials (6%), energy (4%) and industrials (4%) were the biggest winners, matching conventional wisdom that Trump’s vow for less regulation would boost the industries.
Notable stocks hitting all-time highs included Goldman Sachs and Nvidia and prominent names like Bank of America and Tesla touched their highest share prices in more than a year (see below for a more complete list).
And Tesla, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase were the biggest percentage gainers of S&P companies valued at $100 billion or more, with shares of each company rising at least 11%.
Individual Stock Records
The following companies hit their highest share prices in at least 12 months Wednesday, with all-time highs denoted in bold: Amazon, American Express, Apollo Global Management, Bank of America, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Carnival, Caterpillar, Cisco, Citigroup, Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Kroger, Morgan Stanley, Nvidia, Oracle, Palantir, Tesla, Visa, Walmart and Wells Fargo.
Who Got The Richest Wednesday
Forbes’ real-time billionaires tracker has the following five people as the biggest net worth winners amid the stock market surge: Tesla CEO Elon Musk ($21 billion gain), Oracle chairman Larry Ellison ($11 billion), Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett ($7 billion), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($6 billion) and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ($5 billion).
Crucial Quote
The tailwinds to U.S. equity indexes following the election include “anticipation of stronger domestic growth, increased [mergers and acquisitions] activity, an extension to personal tax cuts, and hopes of lower corporate taxes,” UBS strategists led by Solita Marcelli identified in a note to clients. “The prospect of a clear-cut election outcome may also be” a catalyst, Marcelli added.
Tangent
Other notable developments in financial markets tied to the election included bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, hitting its highest price ever as investors reacted positively to the results favoring the perceived friendlier to crypto Trump, the dollar staging its highest single-day jump since 2016 as foreign currencies slumped amid trade policy concerns and yields for the baseline 10-year U.S. government bond rose to a four-month high as investors moved into riskier assets and indicated some concern about lingering inflation.