Wall Street roars to record highs after Donald Trump’s historic victory
Wall Street welcomed news of former President Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House — with all three major benchmarks soaring to record highs Wednesday.
The Dow jumped nearly 1,300 points, hitting an all-time best 43,499, while the Nasdaq rose 425 points, or to 18,860, and the S&P 500 increased 103 points, to 5,887, after the opening bell.
The market rally was fueled by industries that are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of a second Trump term, which is expected to loosen regulations while aiming to lower taxes.
“There was relief that there was a quick and undisputed election result,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst, Trade Nation.
Among the biggest winners was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose support for Trump paid immediate dividends.
Shares of Tesla spiked 12%, while other electric vehicle companies saw their values drop.
Rivian Automotive was down more than 2% while Nikola also retreated.
Trump has pledged to ramp up tariffs on imports – which would benefit Musk and Tesla, according to analysts at Wedbush.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched in the EV industry and this dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players from flooding the US market over the coming years,” the agency said in an industry note.
The media company behind Trump’s social media platform Truth Social also got a bump, increasing 6%, to $35.96 — despite reporting a net loss of $19.2 million in the third quarter on Tuesday.
Bank stocks saw robust gains, with Wells Fargo spiking 11% and JPMorgan Chase — the nation’s largest lender — surging 9%.
Cryptocurrency also boomed on Trump’s embrace of the industry. The price of bitcoin jumped nearly 8% to a record $75,345 before falling back slightly.
Shares of crypto trading platform Coinbase were up around 12% as was the stock of retail trading app Robinhood.
Trump campaigned on a pledge to institute tougher punishments against criminals, which could mean a potential windfall for private prison companies.
Geo Group, the private prisons contractor, saw its stock surge by more than 26% on Wednesday.
Energy stocks also rallied early as shares of Exxon were up 2.3% while Chevron gained 2.5%.
Upon taking office, Trump has vowed to lift production restrictions on fossil fuel companies as well as to target offshore wind development.
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However, green energy — an industry that has been dreading a potential second Trump term and which benefited greatly from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act — suffered a pullback.
Sunnova Energy, the solar panel maker, was down more than 23%, while Plug Power, which specializes in clean hydrogen equipment, saw its shares fall 14%.
