US Today.zip Nov 4: Dow Jumps 3% as Democrats Take Congress, Oil Drops 8%

Wall Street rallied hard on Wednesday, November 4, as investors digested the results of the US midterm elections. Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, according to reports, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 3.03% higher. Oil prices moved the other way, falling more than 8% as traders bet that the war with Iran could end sooner. The day also brought October payroll data from ADP and a record-setting debut euro bond sale from Meta. Here is what happened and why it matters.

Stocks: a broad rally after the election

The Dow closed at 53,356.12, up 3.03%. The S&P 500 rose 1.58% to 7,688.62, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.44% to 25,736.51. On Tuesday, election day, the Dow had closed at 51,786.72, the S&P 500 at 7,568.92 and the Nasdaq at 25,372.01, so the Dow added more than 1,500 points in a single session.

Reports described the move as a relief rally. Once the outcome was clear, investors focused on the idea that political uncertainty had eased. A divided government, where one party holds the White House and the other controls Congress, usually makes sweeping policy changes harder to pass. Markets often read that as a sign that big swings in tax, spending or trade policy are less likely.

Not every corner of the market joined in. Data center stocks fell on concern that a Democratic Congress could push for tighter rules on artificial intelligence, according to reports. Bonds rallied alongside stocks: the 10-year Treasury yield eased to around 4.90%, and the two-year yield touched a two-month low during the session, according to reports.

Politics: Democrats win both chambers

Democrats won majorities in both the House and the Senate, according to reports, including victories in districts and states long considered Republican strongholds. President Donald Trump said he would accept the results, according to reports.

When the new Congress convenes in January 2027, the president's party will be in the minority. That matters for budgets, legislation and oversight. Bills will need Democratic support to pass, and spending fights could become a regular feature of the calendar. For investors, the key question is whether the new balance of power slows fiscal expansion, which could keep longer-term borrowing costs in check.

A midterm election is held halfway through a president's four-year term. Every seat in the House is on the ballot, along with about a third of the Senate.

Energy: oil falls more than 8%

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $88.12 a barrel, down 8.3%. Brent, the international benchmark, settled at $94.62, down 8.7%. On Tuesday, Brent had settled at $103.60 and WTI at $96.09, so Brent lost nearly $9 a barrel in one day. Brent also fell below $100 for the first time in about two months.

The drop followed comments by Vice President JD Vance, who blamed the war against Iran for the Republican losses, according to reports. Traders took that as a sign the conflict could wind down sooner, which would ease fears about supply from the Gulf. Lower oil prices can cool fuel costs and inflation pressure, but they hurt energy producers, and energy shares were weak on the day.

Jobs: ADP private payrolls rise 86,000

Payroll processor ADP said US private employers added 86,000 jobs in October. September's gain was revised down from 90,000 to 86,000, so job growth held at the same modest pace for two months in a row. The October figure came in slightly above expectations, according to reports.

ADP also reported that median year-over-year base pay growth was 3.2%, while median gross pay growth, which includes bonuses and other extras, was 4.7%. ADP's report is based on anonymized payroll data from more than 26 million private-sector employees. It comes out before the government's official jobs report, so investors use it as an early read on the labor market. The two measures often differ. The next ADP report is due on December 2.

Meta: a debut euro bond

Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, sold its first euro-denominated bonds and raised €9 billion, according to reports. The deal came one day after Meta raised $15 billion in a five-part US dollar bond sale. Investors placed about €53 billion of orders for the euro deal, roughly six times its size, according to reports, and the bonds were split into several parts with maturities from about four years to about 38 years.

Big Tech companies are borrowing heavily to pay for AI data centers, chips and cloud capacity. Selling bonds in euros lets a US company tap a deep investor base in Europe and spread its funding across currencies. Meta's total debt stood at about $83.7 billion at the end of September, according to LSEG data cited in reports.

Key terms

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tracks 30 large US companies. Because it holds so few stocks, big moves in a handful of names can swing the index. A Treasury yield is the return implied by a Treasury security’s current price and future payments; when yields fall, bond prices rise.

What to watch next

The market now has a clearer picture of who controls Washington for the next two years. Investors will watch how quickly the new Congress sets its agenda, whether talks to end the Iran war make progress, and whether the government's official jobs data confirm the steady but slow pace seen in the ADP numbers.

The bottom line

Stocks surged and oil slumped on November 4 as Democrats took both chambers of Congress, according to reports. The Dow gained 3.03%, Brent fell 8.7% to $94.62, private payrolls rose 86,000 and Meta raised €9 billion in its first euro bond sale, according to reports.

Sources: ADP