Thursday's early trade: Wall Street draws comfort from divided Congress

NEW YORK: US stocks jumped on Thursday as bets on Republicans retaining control of the Senate eased worries of major policy changes that could hurt corporate America under a Joe Biden White House, even as the presidential election hung in balance.

With counting continuing in the battleground states still to be declared, investors were abandoning cautious positioning that many took ahead of the election, driving all of Wall Street's main indexes up by around 2%.

Analysts predicted the fraught nature of the vote would hamper any moves by Congress to deliver more fiscal stimulus and put pressure on the US Federal Reserve to nod to pumping more funds into the financial system, supporting more buying of stocks.

The Fed is set to issue a statement later, after a two-day meeting delayed for the election, and is widely expected to repeat its pledge to do whatever it can to help an economy ravaged by the coronavirus crisis. At 12:12 p.m. EST the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.76% at 28,336.67, and the S&P 500 1.99% at 3,512.06.