The stock market gave its version of a standing ovation to the Republican midterm election win: A nice boost.
As soon as the market opened Wednesday morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped to a new all-time high of 17,481.3. The S&P 500 is near record territory as well. It’s trading above its closing record, but not quite at its intraday trading record.
The biggest celebration this morning is in the energy sector. Utilities and energy companies surged. Devon Energy EOG Resources and Chesapeake Energy are the top gainers in the S&P 500, with plenty of others in the sector not far behind.
The reason?
“In the run up to the 2016 elections, we think the GOP will want to focus on a few issues they could quickly pass through Congress and get onto President Obama’s desk,” writes Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management.
Those top issue are likely to include pushing through approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and making it easier to export liquified natural gas. This would be a huge boom to the energy market, since the U.S. has a plethora of natural gas from shale and world markets often have higher prices than the U.S. for natural gas.
