The Dow jumped 1,569 points for its best day since April 2025 as Democrats won Congress and oil sank 8%

Wall Street spent Tuesday night worrying about the midterm elections and Wednesday celebrating them. A day after Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate, the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its biggest gain in more than 18 months, oil prices collapsed and Treasury yields fell. Investors treated a divided government as a source of certainty rather than risk, helped by President Donald Trump's acknowledgment that he would accept the results, according to CNN and The Asia Business Daily.

How the session ended

The Dow rose 1,569.40 points, or 3.03%, to 53,356.12, Reuters and Xinhua reported. The S&P 500 gained 119.70 points, or 1.58%, to 7,688.62, and the Nasdaq Composite added 364.50 points, or 1.44%, to 25,736.51. Yahoo Finance data show the same closing levels.

Yahoo Finance and CNN said it was the Dow's best day since April 2025, when Trump paused a sweeping tariff rollout. CNN, citing CFRA Research, said it was also the Dow's biggest single-day gain after a midterm election since 1982. The Asia Business Daily noted that the Dow closed above 53,000 for the first time since Sept. 8.

The gains were broad. All but two of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, Reuters reported, with consumer discretionary up 4.3%. Energy was the weakest group, down 4.8% as crude prices fell. The Cboe Volatility Index dropped 20.3% to 16.61, according to Yahoo Finance data.

"Investors could conclude that Washington remains structurally constrained, limiting the prospects for dramatic shifts in the economic outlook." - Michael Krautzberger, Allianz Global Investors, as quoted by Reuters

Big Tech up, chips down

The day's split ran right through the technology sector. Microsoft rose 6.68% to $555.80, Amazon 6.12% to $266.03 and Apple 5.31% to $349.51, according to Yahoo Finance data, and Yahoo Finance said Apple and Microsoft both hit all-time highs during the session. Alphabet added 3.18%.

Chipmakers went the other way. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index fell 3.1% to a six-month low, Reuters reported. Nvidia lost 3.17% to $200.13 and Micron 7.0% to $795.23. Data center operators and suppliers fared worse, on concern that Democratic wins in Texas and other states could slow the construction of new facilities. Reuters said some large technology companies rose on expectations that a slower buildout would favor them competitively.

Oil's biggest drop since April

U.S. crude for December delivery fell $7.97, or 8.29%, to settle at $88.12 a barrel, according to Dow Jones Market Data. That was its largest one-day decline since April 17 and its lowest settlement since Aug. 31, and it left crude down $16.00, or 15.37%, over three sessions. Reuters said the drop reflected bets that the shift in power in Washington would hasten the end of the Iran war. Aegis Hedging noted that Trump told the Financial Times the U.S. had no immediate plans for further strikes, though Iranian officials said the two sides remained far from an agreement.

Gold moved the opposite way. Comex gold for November delivery rose $133.20, or 3.39%, to settle at $4,061.10 an ounce, its biggest one-day gain since Aug. 5, Dow Jones Market Data showed. Spot gold traded around $4,061 late in the day, according to market data, as the dollar weakened, CNBC reported.

Yields slip, data hold steady

Treasuries rallied. The 10-year yield ended at 4.90%, down from 4.95% on Tuesday, and the 2-year at 4.58%, down from 4.61%, according to the Treasury Department's daily rates. A Reuters report said investors expect a divided Congress to limit new government spending.

The morning's economic data did little to change the picture. ADP said private employers added 86,000 jobs in October, above the 75,000 economists expected, CNBC reported. The Institute for Supply Management's services index slipped to 54.5 from 54.9, a touch below the 54.8 forecast in a Reuters poll, while its prices-paid gauge stayed high at 73.0. FXStreet put the odds of a quarter-point Fed rate increase in December at about 79%.

After the bell

Earnings kept moving individual stocks after the close. AppLovin, which had already risen 10.69% in the regular session, jumped 16% to 21% after hours, according to Investing.com and StreetInsider, on results and a fourth-quarter revenue forecast above estimates. Qualcomm and Arm both slipped in extended trading after their own reports.

What carries into Thursday

The rally now has to hold through the rest of a busy week. Weekly jobless claims arrive Thursday morning, and the October jobs report on Friday is expected to show payrolls rose by 65,000, according to a Reuters poll of economists. Investors will also watch whether oil's slide continues as Washington adjusts to a new balance of power, and whether the selling in chip and data center stocks deepens or reverses.