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* Futures: Nasdaq down 1.15%, S&P down 0.14%, Dow up 0.29%
January 6 (Reuters) – Nasdaq 100 futures fell more than 1 percent on Wednesday as investors held prices ahead of Democrats winning both races in Georgia’s Senate election, which will balance power in Washington.
Edison Research named one of the races for Democrat Raphael Warnock, removing current Kelly Loeffler, while Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff had a weak advantage over Republican David Perdue in the other, with 98% of the vote counted.
A Democrat-controlled Senate would give President-elect Joe Biden more opportunity to act on his reform plans, including the new COVID-19 stimulus, but could also mean higher corporate taxes and stricter regulations. to mega-technological capabilities – policies that are not usually favored by Wall Street.
“A ‘blue wave’ may not be a negative outcome for markets, as decisive fiscal action will help accelerate the economic recovery,” said Vasu Menon, executive director of investment strategy at OCBC Bank, Singapore.
“This will broadly be optimistic about risky assets, especially emerging stocks, loans, commodities and securities.”
By 2:06 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 89 points, or 0.29%. The constituent elements of the Dow blue chip will generally benefit from a recovery in economic activity.
The S&P 500 e-minis fell 5.25 points, or 0.14%, and the Nasdaq 100 e-minis fell 147 points, or 1.15%.
Hopes for a vaccine-based economic recovery in 2021 have led Wall Street to pick up at the end of December, but sentiment has recently been affected by the discovery of a more contagious variant of coronavirus and the latest restrictions.
Analysts also expect the market to consolidate gains from December to January as asset managers try to rebalance their portfolios that have been heavily inclined to equities. (Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)