US equity markets rallied strongly but closed off their best levels of the session as the predicted Democratic ‘Blue Wave’ failed to materialize albeit the presidential election race remains extremely tight - Dow +368-points or +1.34%, having been up over >800-points at its best levels of the session. The broader S&P500 +2.20%, paring an earlier rally of as much as +3.5%. The S&P Healthcare index (up +4.45%) jumped to a record high Pfizer Inc (up +3.15%), Merck & Co (+4.81%) and Johnson & Johnson (+0.65%) climbed as the potentially split Congress was likely to shield the industry from sweeping reform. Communication Services (up +4.25%), Information Technology (+3.83%), and Consumer Discretionary (+3.14%) were the other notable sector performers. Materials (down -1.65%), Utilities (-1.59%) and Financials (-1.27%) were the key laggards. Costco Wholesale Corp edged +0.33% higher in after-hours trading after reporting that its net sales for October rose +15.9% to $13.82B from US$11.92B in October 2019. Same-store sales in the U.S. rose +13.6%, and total same-store sales, which includes overseas locations, rose +14.4% The technology-centric Nasdaq jumped +3.85%, with big gains for Facebook Inc up +8.32%, Google parent Alphabet Inc +6.09%, Amazon.com Inc +6.32% and Apple Inc +4.08%. The S&P and Nasdaq posted their best post-election gains on record.
