US stock futures held steady as investors brace for the results of the US presidential election, which are expected to roll in over the next several hours.
Near 7 p.m. ET, contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) floated just about the flatline while S&P 500 futures (ES=F) moved roughly 0.1% higher. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) were up about 0.2% on the heels of a winning day for stocks.
Stocks finished Tuesday’s session solidly in the green as Americans flocked to the polls to decide whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will become the next president.
Polls in a select number of states, including Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, among others are now closed. The remaining states will shut down their respective polling stations within the next few hours, with all polling locations set to close by 11 p.m. ET.
As the results start to trickle in, investors will closely scrutinize any movement in stock futures, given the possibility of short-term market volatility. It’s possible the outcome of the election may not become clear for days or even weeks.
Heading into Tuesday, betting markets tightened while national polls showed both candidates in a virtually deadlocked race. Polls in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which are likely to decide the fate of the election, also showed razor-thin margins.
The next crop of states have officially closed their respective voting polls: Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia, among a slew of others.
The remaining states will close in the next few hours. All polling locations are set to close by 11 p.m. ET.
Election predictions from our columnist
I’m not an election forecaster, but I’ll make a 2024 election call based on polls and my own intuition. Since I’m publishing this for everybody to see, my fans can extol me — or my trolls can berate me — whether I’m right or wrong.
Yes, I could be wrong, and if so I’ll admit it tomorrow (or whenever we know).
4 issues that are on the ballot this evening
While you wait for results, take a break from reloading those ever-changing betting markets and take a look at the stakes.
Yahoo Finance spent the final days of the 2024 campaign examining four key economic decisions that, like it or not, will confront the next president in his or her first two years in office. Here’s more about those issues that will be center stage next year, no matter who wins.
Top issues for voters, according to early exit polls: Democracy, economy, abortion
Exit polls released by NBC News, Fox News, CNN, and other TV networks on Tuesday afternoon indicate some of the top issues for voters.
Via Bloomberg: “Around 35% of voters — including a plurality of both men and women — said democracy was their top issue and 31% said the economy, while 14% picked abortion. Immigration was the top issue for 11% of voters. Abortion was the top issue for 19% of women versus just 8% of men. Only 4% of voters said foreign policy was their biggest concern.
Some tips for tracking tonight’s election returns
Our job at Yahoo Finance tonight is to track market implications of election developments, not to parse election returns at the county level and draw maps and circles all over wall-sized maps of Pennsylvania and Georgia. But I set up an X feed with a few experts on election returns, for anybody who wants to go deep into the districts tonight. Anybody can follow that feed for sharp analysis of what early returns are telling us. Just click the link above and follow my list, which I’ve cleverly labeled “Election night.”
I noticed political analyst Louis Jacobson curated an election night list as well. Click that link to follow it. Lou does terrific work as a contributor to PolitiFact and many other outlets. Definitely a good guy to follow, in his own right.
US stock futures held steady as the first states closed their polls in the wrap-up to Election Day.
Near 6 p.m. ET, contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) climbed about 0.1% while S&P 500 futures (ES=F) also moved roughly 0.1% higher. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) were up about 0.2% on the heels of a winning day for stocks.
