Global stock markets climbed on Wednesday, continuing to monitor the results of a dagger-drawn US presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, while Congress is likely to remain divided between a Democratic House and a Republican Senate.
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Wall Street ended with a bang, the index with strong technological coloring Nasdaq climbing by 3.85%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.88% and the S&P 500 appreciated 3.33%.
After sharply lower openings in the morning, quickly corrected, the main European markets progressed during the day and all ended up sharply. Paris took 2.44%, London 1.67%, Frankfurt 1.95%, Milan 1.96%.
Crude prices have also moved forward: the price of a barrel of WTI oil for delivery in December, listed in New York, gained 3.95% to 39.15 dollars and that of Brent for delivery in January, traded in London, 3.82% to 41.23 dollars.
Up since the start of the European session, both benchmark prices rose further after news of a surprise drop in trading crude stocks in the United States.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden was at the gates of the White House on Wednesday after precious victories in two key states against Donald Trump, who for his part promised a real judicial guerrilla war.
With Wisconsin and Michigan in his pocket, second and third states taken from Donald Trump with Arizona, Joe Biden now has 264 voters. If he won Nevada (6), he would reach the magic number of 270 to be elected President of the United States.
Mr. Trump’s campaign team for its part announced legal offensives in Wisconsin to demand a recount of the votes and in Pennsylvania to obtain the suspension of the counting of that state with the still uncertain outcome.
The president himself had threatened on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, in a confused speech, to seize the Supreme Court, while remaining evasive on the grounds.
” Dead end ”
Financial markets appeared to be bracing for a Joe Biden presidency, however, as Republicans were on the verge of retaining their Senate majority and Democrats were expected to keep control of the House of Representatives.
“This means that we will be in a political impasse, which the market sees in a positive way,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.
“Whoever wins, he will not be able to fully implement his program,” adds the expert.
The absence of a “blue wave” for the Democrats means in particular that it will be much more difficult for Mr. Biden, in the event of final victory, to pass his tax increases on the big companies and the big American fortunes as well as on stock market gains.
The dollar was evolving at equilibrium (+ 0.04% against the euro at 1.172 7 dollars per euro, -0.07% against the yen at 104.52 yen per dollar).
On the European and American bond market, interest rates fell on ten-year debt, a sign of the search for securities deemed safer than equities.
In New York, America’s digital stalwarts posted impressive gains, including Alphabet (+ 6.09%), the parent company of Google, and Facebook (+ 8.32%).
For some analysts, these advances can be explained by the fact that with a divided Congress, Democrats will have less leeway to dismantle these companies, subject to several investigations and legal proceedings.
The chauffeur-driven car reservation platforms (VTC) Uber (+ 14.59%) and Lyft (+ 11.28%), for their part, took off after obtaining a major victory in a referendum in California to preserve their economic model.
In Frankfurt, defensive stocks were the most sought after, like the health group Fresenius Medical Care (+ 6.96%), as was Sanofi (+ 6.31%) in Paris.
The title of the delivery hero Delivery Hero also gained 7.8%, benefiting in particular from the introduction of partial lockdowns in Europe.
Several stocks in London benefited from the rise of the dollar against the pound, AstraZeneca (+ 6.88%), and British american tobacco (+ 3.54%) were among them.