Bulls Score Election Rally on Wall Street

Bloomberg also reported that JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote) would close one of its global trading desks and cut jobs in anticipation of a recession. The stock edged up 3.5% to $42.17.

Elsewhere in the financials, Swiss bank UBS (UBS Quote) announced it swung to a profit for the third quarter. The profitable quarter follows four straight earnings periods marked by losses on writedowns tied to mortgage securities. UBS shares gained 7.5% to $17.39.

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 rose $6.62 to settle at $70.53 a barrel. Gold added $30.50 to close at $757.30 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were rising in price. The 10-year was adding 1-14/32 to yield 3.74%, and the 30-year was gaining 1-31/32, yielding 4.21%. The dollar was rising 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.

(Photo gallery: Trading Faces)