Historically, the stock market often rises on Election Day. But this time around, the bulls appear to be in full control, with the Dow Jones Industrials (^DJI 0.81%) up more than 155 points as of 1:15 p.m. EST. Although most analysts believe the market would react more favorably to a Republican victory in the White House, the easy monetary policy that we've seen throughout the current Democratic administration has been an integral part of the market's bull run. At least for now, the Fed appears poised to keep rates low for the foreseeable future.
But among the Dow's 30 stocks, you can see a few standouts. The aerospace industry is leading the way higher, with United Technologies (RTX 1.00%) rising by almost 3% and Boeing (BA 2.98%) gaining more than 2%. Boeing's U.S. airline debut of its 787 Dreamliner was an important milestone for the company, but even more important will be getting the hundreds of back-orders filled and delivered on schedule. Boeing also won a contract to supply helicopters to the Indian military, beating out Russian rivals. Meanwhile, United Tech said yesterday that it prepaid $1 billion on its outstanding term loan agreement, cutting by half the debt it incurred under the loan to help finance its purchase of Goodrich.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 1.10%) also moved higher by nearly 3%. As nice as it is to see the beaten-down tech giant recover some of its losses, the stock still trades just 5% above multiyear lows. Moreover, despite its recent investment in support of the Linux operating system, it's not immediately clear whether or how HP can use an open-source business model to recover from its current doldrums.
Finally, Alcoa (AA) climbed 2% as general enthusiasm about the prospects for the economy pushed economically sensitive stocks higher. For Alcoa, the stakes are especially high, as the company needs not only a U.S. recovery, but also better business conditions across the globe in order to engineer a strong turnaround.
