Stocks rose on Thursday as Congress confirmed the election of Joe Biden as president. Gains were kept in check following a sizable rally on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 145 points higher, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.3%.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase rose 3.2% to lead the Dow higher after the banking giant was upgraded to buy by an analyst at Bank of America. Walgreens Boots Alliance rose 1.9% on the back of stronger-than-expected quarterly results. The financials, tech and consumer discretionary sectors rose more than 1% each to lift the S&P 500.
Late Wednesday evening, the Capitol building was secured and Congress reconvened to continue the process to confirm Biden’s win. That affirmation came early Thursday morning with the House of Representatives and the Senate rejecting efforts to object to the acceptance of the Electoral College votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Earlier on Wednesday, pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol just as lawmakers started the procedural process of counting the Electoral College votes and formally declaring Biden the winner.
Investors managed to look past the chaos in Washington, however, with the Dow posting a record close.
“There should be no mystery as to why the markets didn’t care about what happened in the Capital yesterday, however disturbing, disgraceful, and embarrassing it was,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “It’s because it has no bearing on the direction of the economy, earnings and interest rates. It’s that simple.”
Instead, traders continue to focus on the possibility for additional fiscal stimulus after the Democratic party secured a slim majority in the Senate, giving it control of both congressional chambers.
NBC News projected on Wednesday afternoon that Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican David Perdue in one of the two runoff elections in Georgia. Earlier in the day, NBC projected Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in their Georgia runoff.
Georgia’s election results create a 50-50 Senate that Democrats will control, due to the tiebreaking vote in Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. It is widely expected that a Democrat-held Senate would push for a more robust stimulus package, speculation which boosted equities on Wednesday, especially stocks hit hardest during the Covid recession.
On the data front, initial jobless claims came in at 787,000 for the week ending Dec. 31, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a print of 815,000.
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