Wall Street rallies Wednesday after Democrats’ decisive midterm victory

Stocks ripped higher on Wednesday as a decisive Democratic victory in the midterm elections, and President Donald Trump's acceptance of the results, removed the political uncertainty hanging over Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1,569.40 points, or 3.03%, to close at 53,356.12, back above 53,000 for the first time since Sept. 8 and its best day since April 9, 2025. The S&P 500 gained 1.58% to 7,688.62, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.44% to 25,736.51.

Falling oil did much of the work. U.S. crude fell more than 8% to close at $88.12 a barrel, according to 24/7 Wall St., after Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the Republican losses, a remark traders read as raising the odds of de-escalation. The 10-year Treasury yield slipped about 6 basis points to roughly 4.89%, according to The Motley Fool, and the VIX volatility gauge fell about 20% to 16.61, per 24/7 Wall St. Morgan Stanley Investment Management's Andrew Slimmon told CNBC that markets "like gridlock."

The rally was narrower than the Dow's gain suggests. Microsoft (MSFT) rose 6.68% to $555.80 and Apple (AAPL) gained about 6% to a record $354.33, while Caterpillar (CAT) fell 5.23% and Nvidia (NVDA) dropped 3.17% to $200.13, according to 24/7 Wall St. and CNBC. AI and data center names, including CoreWeave and SpaceX, fell on fears of tighter data center rules under the new Democratic majorities, and no major index closed at a record.

That split carried into Thursday. Dow futures rose about 0.6% while Nasdaq-100 futures fell about 0.6% early Thursday as the AI trade weakened for a second day and Qualcomm slid about 9% on a weak outlook, CNBC reported. Points to watch are whether the rotation away from AI infrastructure names persists, how oil trades if Iran de-escalation hopes fade, and Friday's October jobs report.