Report on Economy Lifts Stocks to Election Day Rally

US stocks rallied Tuesday as voters headed to the polls and more data piled up to show the economy remains solid.

• The S&P 500 rose 70.07 points, or 1.2%, to 5,782.76 and moved closer to its record set last month.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 427.28 points, or 1%, to 42,221.88.
• The Nasdaq composite rose 259.19 points, or 1.4%, to 18,439.17.

The market got a lift from a report showing growth accelerated last month for retailers, transportation companies, and other businesses in the US services industries, the AP reports. That was despite economists' expectations for a slowdown, and the Institute for Supply Management said it was the strongest growth in more than two years. The strong data offered more hope that the US economy will remain solid and avoid a long-feared recession following the worst inflation in generations.

Excitement about the artificial-intelligence boom also helped lift the stock market, as it has for much of the last year. Software company Palantir Technologies jumped 23.4% after delivering bigger profit and revenue than analysts expected for the latest quarter. It's an industry known for thinking and talking big, and CEO Alexander Karp said, "We absolutely eviscerated this quarter, driven by unrelenting AI demand that won't slow down." It helped offset a 5.2% drop for NXP Semiconductors. The Dutch company fell to one of the largest losses in the S&P 500 after warning that weakness it saw in markets during the latest quarter is spreading to Europe and the Americas.

The market's main event, though, is the election, even if the result may not be known for days or weeks as officials count all the votes. Such uncertainty could upset markets, along with an upcoming meeting by the Federal Reserve on interest rates later this week. The widespread expectation is for it to cut its main interest rate for a second straight time. Despite all the uncertainty heading into the final day of voting, many professional investors suggest keeping the focus on the long term. The broad US stock market has historically tended to rise regardless of which party wins the White House, even if each party's policies can help and hurt different industries' profits underneath the surface.

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Besides who will be president, other questions hanging over the market include whether the White House will be working with a unified Congress or one split by political parties, as well as whether the results will be contested. The general hope among investors is often for split control of the US government because that's more likely to keep the status quo and avoid big changes that could drive the nation's debt much, much higher. CNN reports that trading in Trump Media and Technology Group was halted twice after a huge surge was followed by a sudden drop. The stock, which was up more than 17% at one point, closed 1.2% lower.

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