US Stock Market today: S&P 500, Nasdaq, Russell 2000 rise but Dow Jones fall as investors eye midterm elections 2026 results. Check top gaining, worst performing stocks

US Stock market indexes S&P 500, Nasdaq have jumped but Dow Jones fell as Wall Street investors await results of midterm elections 2026. On Tuesday, S&P 500 rose 27.52 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 7,568.92, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 197.26 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 51,786.72, Nasdaq composite rose 207.65 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 25,372.01, Russell 2000 rose 6.57 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 2,812.45.

Nvidia rose 2.3 per cent. Close behind was another chip company, Broadcom, which rose 3.1 per cent. Microsoft, Amazon and Meta Platforms all rose more than 2 per cent. Memory-chip maker Micron Technology gained 2.6 per cent, AMD stock price jumped 3.65 per cent. Alphabet stock price gained 0.83 per cent.

Apple stock price down 1.9 per cent. Palantir Technologies fell 1.6 per cent.


DuPont rallied 8.6 per cent for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500, and Celanese climbed 5 per cent. Revvity rose 7.8 per cent.

Gartner dropped 13.2 per cent, while US-listed shares of Thomson Reuters and Shopify fell 9.9 per cent and 8.7 per cent, respectively, after all three reported quarterly results.

Six of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by consumer staples, down 1.76 per cent, followed by a 1.75 per cent loss in materials. Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 by a 1.6-to-one ratio. The S&P 500 posted 10 new highs and one new low; the Nasdaq recorded 57 new highs and 251 new lows.

Election Results Impact on Wall Street

History suggests such elections may not matter much for the broad market. Going back to 1970, the S&P 500 has had a positive return every time in the six months following a midterm election, according to Brock Weimer, an analyst at Edward Jones.

Some on Wall Street speculate that a Democratic sweep of Congress this time around could lead to more regulations and restrictions on AI development. But Donald Trump would still be president and have the power to veto. And Wall Street generally prefers split control of Washington, which it sees as offering less risk of transformative policies that could reshape the economy.

Markets will assess potential implications for fiscal policy, regulation, taxation and government spending. This will be good to put behind us as it has been an anticipated volatility event for quite some time, said Ken Mahoney, CEO of Mahoney Asset Management.

Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note earlier this week that the elections should help remove a major market overhang. They believe a US market correction that began in June is in its "final innings."