How stocks moved after the 2026 US midterms
Democrats won control of the House and the Senate in the 3 November elections. The next day the S&P 500 rose 1.6%. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla, defence companies, neoclouds and data centre suppliers fell. Big Tech, hospital operators and solar companies rose.
Solar and clean power stocks rose 8% and neoclouds fell 13% between the 3 November close and 6 November
Average share price change of each group since the 31 July close, to the 6 November close
Source: Yahoo Finance · Dealroom calculations
Each line is the average of one group in the chart below, with each company counted equally. The neoclouds CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN rent out Nvidia chips, and Applied Digital and Core Scientific build and run data centres for them. The group had lost 29% since 31 July before the vote, and 39% by 6 November. Data centre power and chip companies had lost 6% before the vote and 18% by 6 November. SpaceX and Tesla had risen 29% on average before they fell. Hospitals and health insurers were up 8% before the vote and 14% by 6 November. The chart below shows each company from the 3 November close to the 6 November close.
Share price moves of 36 stocks in the days after Democrats won Congress
Share price change from the 3 November close, election day, to the 6 November close
Source: Yahoo Finance · Dealroom calculations
Why they moved
Elon Musk. Musk spent at least $474 million backing Republicans, $224 million of it in Texas. Democrats won the Texas governor and Senate races. SpaceX fell 4% and Tesla 3%. Trump Media fell 25%, the largest move that day.
Defence. The administration has asked Congress for $1.5 trillion of defence spending in 2027, much of it tied to the war with Iran. Congress sets that budget. Drone makers fell most: Kratos 12%, Red Cat 10%. Lockheed Martin fell 7% and Palantir 2.1%.
Data centres. Voters rejected new data centres in 40 of 41 local ballot measures, and investors expect a Democratic Congress to push for limits on new AI data centres. CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN rent out Nvidia chips from those buildings: they fell 10%, 7% and 11%. Core Scientific and Applied Digital, which run data centres for them, fell 10% and 7%. Comfort Systems, which installs their cooling and electrical systems, fell 15%, and the power producer Vistra 14%.
The rises. Hospital operators and health insurers rose on expectations that Congress will extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies: Centene 13%, HCA 10%. Solar companies rose on expectations of more support for clean energy. Microsoft rose 7%, Amazon 6% and Apple 5%, to a record high. Outside the chart, airlines, homebuilders and discount retailers rose 7–10%, on expectations of lower prices for households.
What this means
The election moved money between sectors in one day. Companies that depend on fast data centre building and on a growing defence budget lost value. Companies that depend on health subsidies and household spending gained. Investors use these listed companies as reference points when they price private companies in the same markets, such as Anduril in defence and Crusoe in data centres.