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Futures for US stocks rose late on Tuesday. S&P Emini futures last rose 1.9%, extending a rally during the official trading session in which the S&P 500 posted its biggest daily gain in nearly a month.
“Markets have taken a step back from the Democratic sweep stage,” said Stephen Innes, Axi’s chief global markets strategist.
On the betting website Smarkets, the odds reflected a 74% chance that Trump would win, up from 33% earlier in the day.
Voters, many wearing masks and maintaining social distancing to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, flocked to polling places across the country throughout the day, experiencing long lines in some locations and short waits in many other locations. There were no signs of disruptions or violence at polling places, as some officials feared.
Pandemic strains
The winner will lead a nation strained by a pandemic that has killed more than 238,000 Americans and left millions more without jobs, racial tensions and political polarization that has only worsened during a virulent campaign.
Biden, the former Democratic vice president, placed Trump’s handling of the pandemic at the center of his campaign and has maintained a consistent lead in national opinion polls over the Republican president.
But a third of American voters listed the economy as the issue that mattered most to them when deciding their election for president, while two in 10 cited Covid-19, according to an exit poll by Edison Research on Tuesday.
In the national exit poll, four out of 10 voters said they thought the effort to contain the virus was “very bad.” In the battleground states of Florida and North Carolina, which could decide the election, five out of 10 voters said the national response to the pandemic was “somewhat or very badly.”
The poll found that nine out of 10 voters had already decided their choice before October, and nine out of 10 voters said they were confident their state would accurately count the votes.
The poll found signs that Trump was losing support among his main supporter base in Georgia.
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