U.S. Stocks Set To Open Higher As Post-Election Rally Continues

Traders Wait For The Results Of U.S. Presidential Election

S&P 500 futures are up by more than 1.5% in premarket trading as leading tech stocks continue to push the market higher.

At this point, it looks like U.S. Republicans managed to maintain the majority in the Senate, and the market does not expect any major shifts in policy even in case Joe Biden wins the presidential election.

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The traders optimism has put significant pressure on the U.S. dollar which is losing ground against a broad basket of currencies. The weak dollar is a bullish catalyst for precious metals so gold and silver are moving higher.

[fx-article-ad]All Eyes On U.S. Fed Interest Rate Decision

Today, the U.S. Fed will announce its Interest Rate Decision and provide commentary on the current situation in the economy. Analysts expect that the Fed will leave the interest rate unchanged so traders will focus on any signs of further monetary easing.

The world central banks continue to boost their asset purchases in order to push bond yields lower. The Bank of England has just increased its quantitative easing program from 745 billion pounds to 895 million pounds. On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia promised to purchase Australian 3-year government bonds in any quantity that will be required to push their yield to 0.1%.

Judging by the recent action in the bond market, traders expect that the Fed will signal that it is ready to offer more support to markets. The yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. government bonds declined from the recent highs at 0.93% to 0.75% after touching a low at 0.72%.

Continuing Jobless Claims Decline to 7.29 Million

The U.S. has just provided Initial Jobless Claims and Continuing Jobless Claims reports.

The Initial Jobless Claims report indicated that 751,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits in a week. Analysts expected that Initial Jobless Claims would decline to 732,000.

Meanwhile, Continuing Jobless Claims decreased from 7.76 million to 7.29 million but remained above the analyst estimate of 7.2 million.

Initial Jobless Claims and Continuing Jobless Claims reports were a bit worse than expected. At the same time, these reports painted a more encouraging picture compared to yesterdays ADP Employment Change report, which showed that private businesses hired 365,000 workers compared to analyst consensus of 650,000.

For a look at all of todays economic events, check out our economic calendar.