Business Report: Dow Soars 1,569 Points as Democrats Sweep Congress and Oil Sinks 8%, Nov. 4, 2026

This business report for November 4, 2026 covers the day after Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the U.S. midterm elections. Wall Street answered with its biggest rally in more than a year and a half, oil prices crashed more than 8%, CVS Health said it will break itself in two, and Boston-based Wayfair posted its strongest sales growth since the pandemic.

Stocks Rip Higher as Democrats Take Congress

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1,569.40 points, or 3.03%, to close at 53,356.12, according to CNBC. That put the 30-stock index back above 53,000 for the first time since Sept. 8 and gave it its best session since April 9, 2025, the day President Donald Trump paused his so-called reciprocal tariffs. The S&P 500 rose 1.58% to 7,688.62, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.44% to 25,736.51. The Financial Times reported that U.S. stocks posted their best day since August.

Part of the lift came from the president himself. Trump told The New York Times he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results and told The Wall Street Journal that Republicans would work with Democrats. “Still more uncertainty looms, but one thing is certain, there will be gridlock and historically this is good for the market,” said Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. Andrew Slimmon of Morgan Stanley Investment Management put it more simply: markets “like gridlock.”

The rally was lopsided. During the session Amazon climbed 8%, Alphabet rose more than 6% and Apple gained nearly 7%, hitting an all-time high of $354.33 and a market value above $5.12 trillion. Walmart and Bank of America also rose. But stocks tied to the artificial intelligence build-out fell. CoreWeave dropped 10%, SpaceX slid 3%, Tesla lost 2%, and Nvidia ended the day 3% lower. Voters rejected data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures in 10 states, according to Ballotpedia figures gathered by CNBC, and analysts noted that Democrats who proposed data center moratoriums won the governor’s races in Texas, Georgia and Ohio. Our earlier report covers how voters turned against data centers in detail.

Oil Crashes Below $90 as War Pressure Builds

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude lost 8.3% to settle at $88.12 a barrel, and Brent, the global benchmark, fell 8.7% to $94.62. Oil is now down more than 14% this week. The slide picked up after Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the Republican defeat. “The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote on social media. “The elections are leading the market to conclude that Trump might now be inclined to make a deal,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates. Not everyone is convinced. Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC, said the sell-off “could be getting a bit overdone,” and Bob McNally of Rapidan Energy said the odds still favor military escalation.

Other markets moved too. Early Wednesday, spot gold was up 2.93% at $4,043.45 an ounce, the 10-year Treasury yield had dropped nearly 5 basis points to 4.902%, and the dollar index was down 0.39% at 101.32. Bitcoin bounced back to about $80,000 after briefly falling toward $75,000.

CVS Health Plans One of the Biggest Breakups Ever

CVS Health said it will split into two publicly traded companies by the first half of 2028, undoing the $78 billion acquisition of insurer Aetna that created its integrated health care giant in 2018. One company will keep the CVS Health name, the Aetna insurer and the Caremark benefit manager under CEO David Joyner. The other, CVS Pharmacy, will run roughly 9,000 retail stores under Prem Shah. Shareholders will own stock in both. Joyner told CNBC the move comes “out of a position of strength.” The shares closed more than 12% lower. The plan also comes as states including Tennessee and Arkansas have passed laws to ban co-ownership of pharmacies and benefit managers. See our coverage of the CVS split and its quarterly results.

Hiring Holds Steady Ahead of Friday’s Jobs Report

Private employers added 86,000 jobs in October, ADP said, matching September’s revised total and beating the 75,000 economists expected. Trade, transportation and utilities led with 39,000 jobs, while professional and business services shed 27,000. Workers who changed jobs saw pay rise 4.8% from a year earlier. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect Friday’s government report to show 59,000 jobs added. Track the bigger picture on our U.S. economy tracker.

The Boston and Massachusetts Angle

Boston-based Wayfair shares closed about 11% higher after the furniture retailer reported third-quarter revenue of $3.42 billion, up 9.7%, and net income of $62 million, reversing a $99 million loss a year earlier. Active customers grew 4.7% to 22.2 million. More on that in our Wayfair earnings report and our Boston business news page.

The midterms could also hand Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren new power over Wall Street. Compass Point analyst Ed Groshans said investors should expect Warren to chair the Senate Banking Committee, where he said crypto bills such as the Clarity Act are likely to stall. Over at The American Prospect, Rep. Greg Casar, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called for Democrats to pass populist bills “every week,” including a stock-trading ban and a crackdown on corporate price-gouging. The caucus expects to start the next Congress with more than 100 members.

By the Numbers: What the Data Shows

The Dow’s percentage gain was almost twice the S&P 500’s, in line with CNBC’s report that economy-linked shares led the gains while AI names lagged. By TBR calculations from CNBC’s figures, U.S. crude’s 8.3% drop means it closed about $8 a barrel below Tuesday’s settlement of roughly $96, and Brent fell from about $103.60. Voters sided against data centers in 97.6% of the measures on the ballot. At Wayfair, the swing from a $99 million loss to a $62 million profit is a $161 million turnaround in one year, and international sales of $380 million now make up only about 11% of revenue. Even after Wednesday’s surge, the S&P 500 would need to climb about 4% more to reach the 8,000 mark that Osaic’s Philip Blancato said is possible by year-end.

What It Means for Your Money

For investors, the message from Wednesday is that divided government and cheaper oil can lift stocks broadly, even as AI infrastructure plays face new political risk. For drivers and airlines, falling crude could ease fuel costs if the drop holds. After the bell, Qualcomm fell 6% in extended trading on a lighter-than-expected forecast, a reminder that earnings season still has a say. Friday’s jobs report is the next big test.

Sources

• CNBC: Stock market today, Nov. 4 live updates and closing data
• CNBC: What was really behind Wednesday’s monster rally?
• CNBC: Hyperscalers and Apple surge after election results
• CNBC: Voters rebuff data centers in every ballot measure except one
• CNBC: Crude oil prices fall below $90 a barrel
• CNBC: CVS to split off drugstore business
• CNBC: Private companies added 86,000 jobs in October, ADP says
• CNBC: Wayfair sales jump 10%
• CNBC: Qualcomm stock drops 6% on weak earnings forecast
• The American Prospect: Progressive Caucus Wants to Deliver on Democratic Promises
• Financial Times: US stocks post best day since August after Democrats sweep midterms
• Financial Times: Oil tumbles below $100 on post-election peace hopes
• The Economist: What markets make of the midterms