(Sharecast News) – Wall Street trading started on a mixed note on Wednesday as the Democratic Party flipped a key Senate seat.
As of 1520 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.20% at 30,757.53 and the S&P 500 was 0.57% firmer at 3,748.10, while the Nasdaq Composite started out the session 0.33% weaker at 12,777.15.
The Dow opened 365.93 points higher on Wednesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.
Wednesday’s primary focus was Georgia’s US Senate special election runoff between Democrat Raphael Warnock and incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler, with the challenger having been projected to win.
Another runoff race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David Perdue was said to still be too close to call.
However, if both Democrats win, that would make a 50-50 tie in the upper chamber, with vice president-elect Kamala Harris acting as a tiebreaker, essentially giving the party control of the Senate.
While many traders fear that a Democrat-run Senate will lead to increased corporate taxes and tighter regulations on firms, the outcome was also seen as potentially speeding up the passing of further Covid-19 stimulus, potentially boosting to companies hit the hardest by the pandemic.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield topped 1% for the first time in almost a year on the news.
On the macro front, private sector employment in the US unexpectedly fell in December as the Covid-19 crisis took its toll on the leisure and hospitality sector, according to the latest figures from the ADP. Employment declined by 123,000 from November, versus expectations for an 88,000 increase and marking the first drop since April. Meanwhile, the November total of jobs added was revised from 307,000 to 304,000.
Elsewhere, IHS Markit’s final composite PMI for December revealed economic activity in the US service sector expanded at a softer pace last month than it had in November, hitting its lowest level in three months at 55.3, down from 58.6.
Lastly, new orders for manufactured goods in the US rose by $5.0bn, or 1%, to $487.2bn in November, according to the Census Bureau, followed October’s increase of 1.3% and better than market expectations for growth of 0.7%.
No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Wednesday.
