US Presidential Poll: Stocks retreat in election eve session

After a tumultuous session, Wall Street equities ended Monday lower as investors braced for volatility related to the US presidential election. Ahead of Tuesday’s in-person vote, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris launched their final round of campaigning in swing states.

According to polls, the race is tied. Until the political scenario becomes more clear, analysts have been forecasting that equities will rise and fall.

The election could have a significant impact on trade and tax policies, as well as on specific industries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.6 percent at 41,794.60.

The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.3 percent to 5,712.69, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also shed 0.3 percent to 18,179.98.

While the presidential election has been viewed as a toss-up, markets overwhelmingly expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a quarter point on Thursday.

Another big potential catalyst for market activity this week will be a meeting of Chinese policy makers in which officials are expected to hash out a major stimulus package.

Among individual companies, Constellation Energy tumbled 12.5 percent along with other nuclear power equities after US energy regulators rejected a nuclear power supply proposal for an Amazon data center, raising worries about other similar projects.

Boeing rose 0.3 percent as striking members of the machinist union in the Seattle region weighed the latest contract proposal. The vote by some 33,000 machinists in could pave the way for production to resume at two factories after a more than seven-week stoppage.

Marriott International dropped 1.6 percent as it reported lower profits, with analysts pointing to China’s economic slowdown and sluggishness in US leisure travel as drags on the results.