NEW YORK — Wall Street rallied on Wednesday as investors took in the Democrats’ sweep of Congress, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average up about 1,500 points, or roughly 3 percent, by midday.
The S&P 500 rose about 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq Composite about 2 percent. If the Dow holds its gains, it would be the index’s best day since April 2025. The figures are from trading during the day, not closing prices, and they can still change before the market closes.
The rally was a sharp turn from the night before. Stock futures had fallen as the election results came in, then recovered once the size of the Democratic win became clear.
What went up
Big technology companies led the gains. Microsoft rose about 6.7 percent, Amazon about 7 percent and Apple more than 6 percent, according to market reports. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, added about 4 percent.
Clean-energy shares climbed even faster. First Solar gained 9.4 percent, the home solar installer Sunrun rose 10 percent and Enphase Energy added 7.6 percent, according to Reuters. A leading solar fund climbed 8.3 percent.
What went down
Companies that run data centres for artificial intelligence lost ground. CoreWeave, Core Scientific, Iren and Applied Digital all fell, according to Reuters. Defence contractors also dropped: Northrop Grumman fell about 5 percent and Lockheed Martin more than 3 percent. Tesla fell about 3.6 percent, and Trump Media & Technology Group, which is majority-owned by President Donald Trump, dropped about 7.7 percent.
Oil fell hard. U.S. crude futures dropped about 8 percent to around $88.50 a barrel, the lowest in nearly a month.
Why investors moved
Traders and analysts linked much of the move to the election result, though company news played a part too — the drugmaker Amgen, for example, rose on its earnings report.
Reuters reported that many investors bet a divided government in Washington could limit sharp policy changes, which can calm markets. At the same time, a Democratic Congress is expected to look more closely at the AI industry and at the data centres that use large amounts of power and water, and to defend federal support for clean energy. That helps explain why data centre stocks fell while solar shares rose.
Oil traders were weighing something else: the chance that the new Congress could push to end the war with Iran. Vice President JD Vance partly blamed the war for Republican losses, and the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump said he would accept the results and looked forward to working with Democrats.
Zark News reported earlier Wednesday that futures steadied in the early hours after an initial drop, and that gold rose above $4,000 an ounce as some investors looked for safety.
