Stock futures surged and Treasury yields climbed sharply after Donald Trump’s decisive election victory, as traders piled into trades that are seen as aligning with the former president and president-elect’s economic agenda.
Investors scrambled to position themselves for new tariffs, tax cuts, and big shifts in energy and regulatory policy.
Futures on all three major indexes advanced in premarket trading. S&P 500 futures rose over 2 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained close to 3 percent and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.3 percent. The Russell 2000—a barometer for smaller, economically sensitive companies—rallied nearly 6 percent, reflecting optimism in the domestic economy.
The surge in stocks was reminiscent to the market’s reaction to Trump’s surprise victory in 2016.
In the bond market, a selloff pushed the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury above 4.46 percent, up from Tuesday’s close of 4.290 percent. Bond yields, which move in the opposite direction than prices, tend to rise when investors believe that the economy is set for a faster rate of growth than previously thought.
The Trump trade, however, was not just confined to U.S. markets. Stocks rose in Europe, with indexes tied to German, French, and U.K. shares climbing.
In Asia, the reaction was mixed. Japanese stocks soared, with the Nikkei 225 index rising 2.6 percent. Mainland China’s CSI 300 tumbled by a half percentage point and the Hang Seng Index, which tracks companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, fell 2.3 percent.
