Treasurys Keep Rising On Covid-19 Resurgence, Election Results — Market Talk
November 5, 2020Instant View: U.S. job growth slows in October, unemployment rate drops
November 6, 2020Global stock markets surged on Wednesday, continuing to monitor the results of a dagger-drawn US presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, while Congress is likely to remain divided between a Democratic House and a Republican Senate.
Wall Street ended with a bang, the high-tech Nasdaq index climbing 3.85%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.88% and the S&P 500 appreciated 3.33%.
After sharply lower openings in the morning, quickly corrected, the main European markets rose during the day, all of them ending up sharply. Paris took 2.44%, London 1.67%, Frankfurt 1.95%, Milan 1.96%.
Crude prices have also moved forward: the price of a barrel of WTI oil for delivery in December, listed in New York, gained 3.95% to 39.15 dollars and that of Brent for delivery in January, traded in London, 3.82% to 41.23 dollars.
Up since the start of the European session, the two benchmark prices rose even further after the announcement of a surprise drop in commercial crude stocks in the United States.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden was at the gates of the White House on Wednesday after precious victories in two key states against Donald Trump, who for his part promised a real judicial guerrilla war.
With Wisconsin and Michigan in his pocket, second and third states taken from Donald Trump with Arizona, Joe Biden now has 264 voters. If he won Nevada (6) he would reach the magic number of 270 to be elected President of the United States.
Mr. Trump’s campaign team for its part announced legal offensives in Wisconsin to demand a recount of the votes and in Pennsylvania to obtain the suspension of the counting of this state with the still uncertain outcome.
The president himself had threatened on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, in a confused speech, to seize the Supreme Court, while remaining evasive on the grounds.
– “Dead end” –
Financial markets appeared to be bracing for a Joe Biden presidency, however, as Republicans were set to retain their majority in the Senate and Democrats were expected to keep control of the House of Representatives.
“This means that we will be in a political impasse, which the market sees in a positive way,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.
“Whoever wins, he will not be able to fully implement his program,” adds the expert.
The absence of a “blue wave” for the Democrats means in particular that it will be much more difficult for Mr. Biden, in the event of final victory, to pass his tax increases on the big companies and the big American fortunes as well as on stock market gains.
The dollar was evolving in equilibrium (+ 0.04% against the euro at 1.1727 dollar for one euro, -0.07% against the yen at 104.52 yen for one dollar).
On the European and American bond markets, interest rates fell on ten-year debt, a sign of the search for securities deemed safer than equities.
In New York, the American digital pillars recorded impressive gains, notably Alphabet (+ 6.09%), the parent company of Google, and Facebook (+ 8.32%).
For some analysts, these advances can be explained by the fact that with a divided Congress, the Democrats will have less leeway to dismantle these companies, subject to several investigations and legal proceedings.
The Uber (+ 14.59%) and Lyft (+ 11.28%) chauffeur-driven car reservation platforms (VTC) have for their part soared after obtaining a major victory in a referendum in California to preserve their economic model.
In Frankfurt, defensive stocks were the most sought after, like the health group Fresenius Medical Care (+ 6.96%), as was Sanofi (+ 6.31%) in Paris.
The title of the delivery hero Delivery Hero also gained 7.8%, benefiting in particular from the introduction of partial lockdowns in Europe.
Several stocks in London benefited from the rise of the dollar against the pound, AstraZeneca (+ 6.88%), and British American tobacco (+ 3.54%) were among them.