These Were the Stocks That Won and Lost the Most as Dow Jumped More Than 3% after the Midterms
U.S. stocks rallied Wednesday after Democrats won both chambers of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Hospital operators, solar companies and some of the biggest names in tech climbed, while Trump Media, defense contractors and companies building artificial intelligence data centers fell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 3%, seeing its best day in over a year and a half. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also gained 1.58% and 1.44%, respectively. The rally followed a sharp overnight reversal. Nasdaq-100 futures had fallen as much as 2.4% as the scale of Democratic gains became clear.
Futures recovered after President Donald Trump quickly said he would accept the results. With Democrats set to control Congress and Trump still in the White House, investors bet that divided government would make sweeping federal policy changes harder to enact.
HCA Healthcare jumped 10.6%, and Dollar Tree rose 8.9%. The gains reflected expectations that Democrats could push to restore some federal health care and food assistance funding and make household costs a priority.
In the S&P 500 snapshot, Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) led the gainers, rising 16.38%. Block (XYZ) gained 15.91%, Zimmer Biomet (ZBH) climbed 15.07%, Mosaic (MOS) rose 14.96%, and CDW (CDW) advanced 13.66%.
Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) led the declines, falling 23.71%. Trimble (TRMB) dropped 16.81%, Comfort Systems USA (FIX) fell 15.69%, Datadog (DDOG) lost 14.83%, and Vistra (VST) slid 14.72%.
First Solar gained 6.4%, and Enphase Energy rose 6.2% as investors saw a more favorable outlook for renewables under a Democratic Congress. Sunrun and solar tracker maker Nextpower also advanced.
Oil producers moved in the opposite direction as Brent crude plunged 8.8% to $94.51 a barrel. Exxon Mobil fell 5.3%, and ConocoPhillips lost 5.9%. Both had benefited from higher crude prices during the war with Iran.
The split in AI stocks ran through the companies that buy computing power and those racing to build more of it. Amazon surged 7.4% to a three-month high, while Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Alphabet also rose. CoreWeave slid 9.1%, and Applied Digital and IREN also fell. The companies face a different calculation because their growth depends on adding capacity.
Democratic wins in states including Texas put the prospect of tighter rules for new projects in focus, while at least 10 towns passed measures banning or restricting data center development, the Journal reported. Nvidia fell 1.4%, while rival AMD edged up 0.5% after reporting a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit.
Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent of Truth Social, sank 15.9%, while Tesla fell 2% and SpaceX lost 3.4%, the AP reported. Elon Musk, who backed Republican candidates, could face greater scrutiny from Democratic-led congressional committees.
Defense shares also weakened as investors weighed whether Congress would press Trump to scale back the Iran war. Lockheed Martin fell 6.9%, Northrop Grumman dropped 4.4%, and General Dynamics lost 2.3%.
