Midday Report: Stocks Higher As Wall Street Shrugs Off Trump's Presidential Election

U.S. stocks rallied slightly in midday trading as energy, financials, and healthcare sectors saw green on Wednesday following the surprise election of Republican Donald Trump.

Author:: Valerie Young
Publish date:: Nov 9, 2016 12:41 PM EST

Following the surprise election of Donald Trump yesterday Wall Street is volatile as investors can't make up their minds about the impact. Equities are trending higher but bounced between gains and losses after spending the night mostly lower. Health care stocks were rising Wednesday in reaction to Trump's victory. Biotech stocks, including Celgene (CELG) - Get Report, Biogen (BIIB) - Get Report and Pfizer (PFE) - Get Report were higher. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) - Get Report that tracks these stocks rose over 7.8%. A Trump victory is seen as a positive because Hillary Clinton criticized rising drug costs and promised to curb them. And financial stocks saw a jump as Bank of America (BAC) - Get Report, Wells Fargo (WFC) - Get Report and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) - Get Report shares bounced over 3%. The SPDR Financial Sector ETF (XLF) - Get Report that tracks the financial-services sector was up over 2% Wednesday. Finally, Viacom (VIAB) - Get Report reported adjusted quarterly earnings of 69 cents a share, topping analysts' estimates by 3 cents. Revenue of $3.23 billion came in below forecasts. Viacom investors will be looking for any commentary on a possible merger to reunite with CBS. Viacom shares were up slightly after being down most of the morning. TheStreet's Valerie Young reports from Wall Street.