US Elections Provide Uncertainty To Senate Majority

A handful of toss-up U.S. Senate races this week could hold the key to whether the stock market glides through the year-end in a typical post-midterm election rally or gets hit with a fresh bout of volatility.

U.S. investors appear less concerned with whether Republicans take control of the Senate, as expected, or Democrats hang on to their majority by a slim margin. They just want to know – come Wednesday morning – the actual outcome.

“If we have a really uncertain situation, where the Senate is divided and candidates are threatening recounts, that’s really not good,” said Robbert van Batenburg, director of market strategy at Newedge USA LLC in New York.

In two southern matchups – Louisiana and Georgia – polls show the races are too tight to call, raising the potential for run-off elections that could delay for weeks knowing who will control Congress’ upper chamber. Louisiana’s run-off election is scheduled for Dec. 6. In the market’s worst-case scenario, the majority party may not be known until after Jan. 6, when Georgia will hold its run-off election if no Senate candidate wins at least 50 percent of the vote on Nov. 4.

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza