US Stocks Post Record Gain On Election Day

Stocks rose on Super Tuesday as investor find relief in the winding down election process. This election day sets the record for the largest gains in history on an election day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) jumped 305 points, ending the day up 3.28%. The market’s gains most likely don’t implicate analysts’ predictions about election results. Both the S&P (^GSPC) and the Nasdaq (^IXIC) saw a positive day, and closed 4.08%, and 3.18% respectively. Super Tuesday also brought an increase in commodities, as oil experiences it’s fourth-largest gain in history.

September’s factory orders fell 2.5%, larger than the expected 0.7% drop from August’s awful numbers. The Factory orders report has not met analysts’ anticipations since July. Like most other indicators, the tightening of credit conditions, in the month of September, can be blamed once again for the drop in expected demand from consumers. As the crisis eases, look for better results for not only this indicator, but for others as well, as the holiday season approaches, and consumer spending increases.

The Nikkei played catch-up today after the other Asian markets benefited on Monday from South Korea’s pledge of a $10 billion infusion into the economy, and India’s rate cut. At the market’s close, the Nikkei climbed 6.27%, still down close to 40% year-to-date. The Hang Seng (^N225) slightly increased 0.28%, while the Shanghai fell 1.72%. European markets advanced today, as the FTSE (^FTSE) progressed 4.42%, the CAC (^FCHI), 4.62%, and the DAX (^GDAXI), 5.00%.

The dollar gained against the yen today, and is trading around 99.775 yen, but is off from the day’s high of 100.4515. On the other hand, the USD lost to the euro today as the dollar fell to 0.7705 euros, 281 pips off of the year’s high.

Oil prices sky-rocketed today experiencing the fourth-highest one day gains in history. The 10.36% move can be attributed to Saudi Arabia and OPEC’s 1.5 million barrel-per-day cut in production agreed upon in OPEC’s meeting last month. This increase could also be attributed to the dollar’s loss against the euro. Virtually every commodity’s price elevated during the trading hours on Tuesday. At the stock market’s close, Gold prices settled around $756.00, up 4.22% on the day.

A Goldman Sachs’ (GS) hedge fund has reported a loss of almost $1 billion since its launch in January. Third quarter losses have amounted to roughly 13%, on losses in commodity positions.

Apple’s (AAPL) Tony Fadell, the chief of the iPod division, has left the company for personal reasons. Apple has named former IBM exec, Mark Papermaster as Fadell’s replacement.

Disclosure: The fund the author is associated with holds a long position in GS.

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