US markets end mostly higher on Wednesday

07 Jan 2021 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday as traders reacted to the results of the highly anticipated Georgia runoff elections on Tuesday. Democratic candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock is projected to win his race against Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, while the race between Jon Ossoff and GOP Senator David Perdue is too close to call but the Democrat is in the lead. If Ossoff holds onto his narrow lead, the Senate would be split 50-50, with a tie-breaking vote by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris giving Democrats control of the chamber. However, the Nasdaq closed lower, as tech stocks could be hurt by the shift into cyclical stocks as well as the higher taxes sought by many Democrats.

On the economic data front, a report released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured goods increased by more than expected in the month of November. The Commerce Department said factory orders surged up by 1.0 percent in November after jumping by an upwardly revised 1.3 percent in October. Street had expected factory orders to climb by 0.7 percent compared to the 1.0 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.  Meanwhile, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the labor market intensifying, payroll processor ADP released a report showing an unexpected drop in private sector employment in the U.S. in the month of December. ADP said private sector employment fell by 123,000 jobs in December after jumping by a downwardly revised 304,000 jobs in November. The decrease surprised participants, who had expected employment to climb by about 88,000 jobs compared to the addition of 307,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 437.8 points or 1.44 percent to 30,829.4 and S&P 500 was up by 21.28 points or 0.57 percent 3,748.14, while Nasdaq declined 78.17 points or 0.61 percent to 12,740.79.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×