Stock markets were volatile in early trading Wednesday as the U.S. presidential election failed to deliver a clear winner.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average swung between gains and losses in pre-market trading as the results of the presidential contest didn’t yield a clear winner on election night.
Dow futures traded 0.2% higher, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.9% and NASDAQ futures popped 2.8% as investors crowded back into technology and stay-at-home stocks that have been popular for most of this year.
Earlier in the overnight session, futures contracts for the Dow and S&P 500 came under some pressure after President Donald Trump tried to claim victory even though millions of legitimate votes were not yet counted.
"We were getting ready for a big celebration. We were winning everything, and all of a sudden it was just called off,” Trump said. “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court, we want all voting to stop," said Trump. "We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list," he added.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden appeared to be unable to take North Carolina, with Trump holding a lead in that state. However, Biden was leading in Arizona. Key swing states Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could take days to determine a clear winner.
Trump is projected to win the presidential vote in Florida, Indiana and Kentucky along with South Dakota, Arkansas and Ohio. Trump is also projected to win Alabama and North Dakota. Biden is projected to win Vermont, Delaware, Maryland and Massachusetts as well as Colorado, New York and Virginia.
Shares of major tech-related companies jumped in premarket trading. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Alphabet and Microsoft were all up at least 2.9%.
Traders and analysts attributed the move in tech and the NASDAQ 100 futures to a number of factors, including the group’s consistently solid returns and safety appeal in times of uncertainty.
