U.S. futures were volatile in overnight trading as the major averages looked to extend Wednesday’s rally.
U.S. stock index futures gyrated in overnight trading on Wednesday as investors hoped that the winner of the U.S. presidential election would be determined soon. Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 53 points after initially moving higher out of the gate. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.2%. Late Wednesday, NBC News projected that former Vice President Joe Biden was the winner in Wisconsin and Michigan, both states that President Donald Trump won in the 2016 presidential election. Biden would then be just 17 Electoral College votes away from winning, NBC News reported Wednesday. « Markets are reacting very positively to the fact that a great deal of the election uncertainty has passed. Not all of it, but at least the worst outcomes seem to have been avoided. Markets hate uncertainty, and this is likely to be a tailwind for a while, » said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. Even with the president-elect unclear, stocks rose broadly during Wednesday’s trading session as hopes for a blue wave in Congress dwindled, which some argued would have been a headwind for areas of the market including Big Tech. « It looks likely that we’ll see a split Congress, which, based on history, has been the preference of the stock market, » said Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest.
