Wall Street Continues Election Day Climb

Credit markets were continuing to improve. Three-month dollar Libor, a measure of the rate banks charge one another for large loans, declined 15 basis points to 2.71%, its lowest level since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. Overnight Libor fell one basis point to 0.38%.

Johnson said that the recent decline in Libor rates is a positive, but the rates have come down sharply from very high levels and it would be very difficult for them to go up from where they had been. "It's not a bad thing, it's an expected thing," he said of the easing in the credit markets.

Looking at the day's economic data, the Census Bureau's September factory orders numbers showed a decline of 2.5%, a narrower slide than 4.3% in August but worse than economists' forecast for a 0.8% decline..

In the realm of commodities, crude oil was rising $6.47 to $70.38 a barrel. Gold was adding $30.60 to $757.40 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were mixed. The 10-year was adding 12/32 to yield 3.87%, and the 30-year was losing 6/32, yielding 4.33%. The dollar was rising sharply vs. the yen but declining rapidly against the euro and pound.

Overseas, European exchanges, including the FTSE in London and the Dax in Frankfurt, were broadly trading higher. As for Asian stocks, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed higher.

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