'Bluewave' Expectations, New York Stock Market Surges... Alibaba Plummets

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] On the day of the U.S. presidential election, the New York stock market surged as expectations grew that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden would win and the Democratic Party would sweep both the House and Senate. The dollar fell, while crude oil and gold strengthened.

On the 3rd (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 554.98 points (2.06%) to close at 27,480.03, the S&P 500 index increased by 58.92 points (1.78%) to 3,369.16, and the Nasdaq index gained 202.96 points (1.85%) to finish at 11,160.57.

On that day, the New York stock market maintained its strong trend from the opening until just before the close. CNBC reported that "investors bet on the 'Blue Wave.'"

Among individual stocks, Alibaba notably plunged 8.13%. This was attributed to the sudden postponement of the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock listings of Ant Group, a fintech company related to Alibaba, which was scheduled for the 5th.

The dollar index, which shows the value of the dollar against major currencies, also fell by 0.74%, anticipating Biden's victory. The market expects that if Biden wins, fiscal spending will increase, leading to a decline in the dollar's value.

While the market sided with Biden's victory, U.S. media have been hesitant to predict the election outcome.

According to RealClearPolitics, the gap between President Donald Trump and Biden in key battleground states narrowed to 2.3 percentage points. President Trump intensified his campaign mainly in battleground states near the end of the election, significantly reducing the gap.

Although the nationwide support shows a relatively large gap of 7.2 percentage points between the two, the battleground states remain highly competitive, making it difficult to easily predict the winner.

With over 100 million mail-in and early votes likely to decide the winner, the prevailing view is that it will take considerable time to confirm the winner due to delays in vote counting.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for December delivery closed at $37.66 per barrel, up 2.3% ($0.85). December delivery gold closed at $1,910.40 per ounce, up 1% ($17.90), regaining the $1,900 level.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.