U.S. stock futures rose on Thursday as Congress confirmed the election of Joe Biden as president. Gains were muted following a sizable rally on Wednesday.
Dow Jones Industrial average futures added 94 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.6%.
On Wednesday, the Dow climbed more than 400 points or 1.4% to close at a record as investors digested what a Democratic-held Congress would mean for stocks and largely looked past riots at the U.S. Capitol. The S&P 500 rose 0.57%, hitting an intraday all-time high during the session.
During Wednesday’s trading session, markets were seemingly unaffected by the chaos in Washington caused by pro-Trump rioters at the U.S. Capitol. Lawmakers had just started the procedural process of counting the Electoral College votes and formally declaring President-elect Joe Biden the winner, when protesters stormed the chamber.
Later 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.
“The strength of the country is our institutions and our laws,” Ed Keon of QMA told CNBC. “Seeing this is disheartening but we will prevail and I think that’s the message of the markets.”
President Donald Trump said in a statement after the Congress confirmation of Biden that “there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.”
“I think the reason the markets aren’t too flummoxed is it’s not going to change the transition of power,” Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors co-founder, said.
On Wednesday, equities rose as Georgia’s Senate runoff election results rolled in. Minutes after the closing bell, NBC projected that Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican David Perdue. This comes after NBC earlier projected Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in their 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.
The small cap benchmark Russell 2000 jumped nearly 4%on Wednesday to top the 2,050 level on hopes of further fiscal aid.
The 10-year Treasury yield broke above 1% for the first time since the pandemic-triggered rout in March late on Tuesday. The jump in yields triggered a rally in bank stocks on Wednesday.
Amid the chaos, cryptocurrency Bitcoin topped $36,000.
The Labor Department releases last week’s jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting 815,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week, compared to the previous week’s 787,000 claims.
Bed Bath & Beyond, Constellation Brands, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Conagra report quarterly earnings before the bell on Thursday. Chipmaker Micron reports after the bell.
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