Stock Market Today: Wall Street Braces for Election Day and Manic Week for Markets

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks fell Monday ahead of significant week full potential hot spots in Washington, DC and around the world.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, although it remains close his record I installed it last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 257 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.3%.

Intel shares fell 2.9% and shares of chemical maker Dow fell 2.1% in the first trading since they received notice to cease operations. included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway fell 2.2% and was among the market’s heaviest after reporting a fall in operating profit for the latest quarter.

However, most stocks in the S&P 500 rose, including a 2.8% rise in Fox shares after the company reported better-than-expected earnings. This is despite increases in some expenses, including newsgathering at Fox News for coverage this election cycle.

Election Day is Tuesday, although results may not be known for some time as officials count all the votes. This has raised concerns about the possibility of wild swings around the world as markets are notoriously averse to uncertainty.

The story could be less foreboding. The broad US stock market has historically continued to rise. no matter which side wins White House. And in 2020, US stocks rose immediately after Election Day and continued to rise even after the previous elections. President Donald Trump refused to acknowledge and disputed the results, creating great uncertainty. Much of this rally was fueled by excitement over the potential of a COVID-19 vaccine, which had just brought the global economy to a standstill.

“Bottom line: The US election is incredibly important, but the process is likely to be incredibly noisy,” said Michael Zesas, a strategist at Morgan Stanley.

As for the markets, Zesas also points out that prices may already be ahead of expected election results. Trump’s victory in this election could mean US tariffs for example, on Mexican imports, which could damage the value of the Mexican peso. But the peso has already fallen against the US dollar in recent months, which could limit further moves if a Trump victory does materialize.

A Trump victory this time would be less of a surprise to markets than in 2016, when Treasury yields soared on expectations of tax cuts that could further inflate the national debt or help strengthen the U.S. economy. Treasury yields have already risen in recent weeks, partly due to rising expectations in some markets that Trump will win, as well as a flood of data showing the U.S. economy remains stronger than feared.

On Monday, Treasury yields gave back some of those gains. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.29% from 4.38% late Friday.

Another investment that has become a market barometer of Trump’s perceived chances of winning fluctuated wildly throughout the day. After oscillating between losses and gains all morning, Trump Media and Technology Group ultimately grew by 12.4%.

Shares of the company behind Trump’s social media platform Truth rallied from rock bottom in September before hitting a wall last week, falling at least 11% for three straight days.

In the oil market, the price of a barrel of oil in the US rose 2.8% to $71.03 after statements by Saudi Arabia and other oil producers. they will postpone plans increase oil production volumes. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2.7% to $75.08 a barrel.

Brent prices are still down this year, partly due to concerns about how much demand will come from China given its economic woes.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress meets this week and analysts say the government could approve major spending initiatives economic growth amid problems in the country’s real estate sector.

In addition to this meeting and Election Day in the United States, this week will also mark the Federal Reserve’s final meeting, where it is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the second time in a row.

The hope, which has driven U.S. stock indexes to records recently, is that the U.S. economy can remain resilient and avoid a long-feared recession, in part due to impending rate cuts expected from the Fed.

On Wall Street, shares of Nvidia rose 0.5% and shares of Sherwin-Williams jumped 4.6% on news that they would replace Intel and chemical company parent Dow in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Nuclear energy shares fell after U.S. regulators rejected a request to supply more power to Amazon’s data center from a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant operated by Talen Energy. Energy companies are striking deals with data center operators to meet their growing need for more electricity, and Talen shares fell 2.2%.

Overall, the S&P 500 fell 16.11 points to 5,712.69. The Dow fell 257.59 to 41,794.60 and the Nasdaq fell 59.93 to 18,179.98.

On overseas stock markets, indexes in Europe were mostly lower after gains in much of Asia.

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AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.