THE ONE THING
Wednesday delivered the kind of session clients remember: the S&P 500 rose 1.6% to 7,688.62 and the Dow gained 3% after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, while WTI crude slid about 8%, according to the AP and Investopedia. The rally was broad, with consumer discretionary, financials and real estate leading, but data center names fell on fears of tighter AI regulation, and Nasdaq-100 futures were down 0.7% early Thursday. The useful framing for clients is that a divided government tends to narrow the range of policy surprises, not remove risk, so this is a good week to revisit rebalancing bands rather than chase a one-day move.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
| S&P 500 | 7,688.62 | 1.58% vs prior close |
| Russell 2000 | 284.02 | 1.51% vs prior close |
| Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) | 691.95 | 0.97% vs prior close |
| Gold (GLD) | 372.49 | 3.68% vs prior close |
| High Yield (HYG) | 77.52 | 0.7% vs prior close |
NEXT BIG NUMBER
Friday, 8:30 a.m. ET: the October jobs report. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect about 59,000 new jobs after September’s 29,000, with unemployment holding at 4.2% and average hourly earnings up 0.3%, per Investopedia. ADP already showed 86,000 private jobs for October. With the 10-year Treasury yield at 4.89%, a hot wage print matters more for bond-heavy portfolios than the headline count.
ADVISOR TIP OF THE DAY
After a big relief rally, send clients a short note before they ask. Name what moved, say what did not change in their plan, and state the one condition that would prompt a portfolio change. A proactive two-paragraph email after a headline day builds more trust than a quarterly review.