S&P 500 plunges as 'red wave' bets fall short; Inflation data eyed

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com -- The S&P 500 plunged Wednesday amid uncertainty on who is likely to win the battle to control congress in an unexpectedly tight U.S. midterm election, just a day ahead of inflation data that could offer fresh clues on Federal Reserve monetary policy measures.

The S&P 500 fell 1.9%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 1.8%, or 590 points, and the Nasdaq was down 2.4%

The midterms didn’t bring the landslide victory for the Republicans, or so-called red wave that many had recently predicted.

The GOP is still widely expected to win a narrow majority in the House, leading to the divided government, but the race for the Senate is tight after Democrats fared much better than expected in key races.

But midterms and bets on how ‘political gridlock’ has historically proved a boon for stocks may prove “short catalysts for people to square the positions for the rest of the year,” Zwei Ren, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management told Investing.com’s Yasin Ebrahim in an interview on Wednesday.

The Fed is the “bigger force in the market,” Zwei says, ahead of inflation data due Wednesday that is expected to show slowing price pressures.

Energy was the biggest drag on the broader market, down 3% following a larger than expected increase in U.S. weekly crude inventories and positive news on the Ukraine-Russia war after the Kremlin ordered troops to pull out of Kherson.

Coterra Energy Inc (NYSE:CTRA), Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES), and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) fell more than 6%, with the latter’s mixed quarterly results that showed a miss on the bottom line further souring sentiment.

Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), meanwhile, fell more than 11% after reporting quarterly results that fell short of Wall Street estimates, driven by weakness in its parks and media businesses. The media giant also warned about slowing growth for its Disney+ streaming platform.

In tech, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) bucked the trend lower to rise more than 5% after the social media company detailed plans to cut more than 11,000 jobs. The cost-cutting was welcomed by Wall Street amid frustrations about the company’s ongoing plan to invest in the metaverse.

Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) dropped 20% after the video game company reported a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss.

D.R. Horton Inc (NYSE:DHI)'s better-than-expected quarterly results helped it shrug off a slip in homebuilders amid data showing mortgage rates jumped.