Yahoo Finance:
“Everything flipped, just like in ‘16, and it seems like it could be a very large Trump win, which means no contested election — and that’s what the market wants,” said Scott Bauer, chief executive officer at Prosper Trading Academy. “They just don’t want this to drag on.”
U.S. equity tech futures surged more than 3.5%, briefly triggering a halt, as election results pointed to a tight race in the American presidential election.
December contracts on the S&P 500 rose 1.6% as of 10:25 p.m. in New York, while the swift rally in Nasdaq 100 futures triggered an exchange-mandated two-minute trading pause. Treasury yields plunged, with the 10-year benchmark down to 0.83% and Bloomberg’s dollar index rose 0.5%.
President Donald Trump looks set to carry several contested battleground states that would be key to his re-election chances, while challenger Joe Biden is turning to the Midwest for support in his bid to take the White House. The race forr control of the Senate remains up in the air.
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Markets have been volatile during the final weeks of the campaign as investors fretted over the potential for a contested outcome, a surge in coronavirus cases and stretched valuations that make megacap tech shares look expensive as the economic rebound starts to slow. The S&P 500 has moved at least 1% six of the past seven sessions.
While Biden’s solid lead in polls had some investors speculating there would be a relatively quick decision on who will prevail, a surge in mail-in ballots has made it more likely that some states won’t be able to declare a winner Tuesday. That exposes markets to a drawn out process for determining the next president.
