Stocks were lower on Wednesday as results of the U.S. midterm elections remained unclear heading into market close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 600 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite lost 2% and 2.5%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -2.08% or -79.54 points to 3,748.57
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -1.95% or -646.89 points to 32,513.94
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -2.48% or -263.02 points to 10,353.17
Wall Street came off of three straight days of gains heading into the election on Tuesday, with investors expecting Republicans to gain ground and create a split Congress. However, that so-call Republican "red wave" failed to materialize.
The party is projected to lose a key Senate seat to Democrat John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania race, and other major race in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican nominee Herschel Walker will head to a runoff vote on Dec. 6. Another critical Senate race in Nevada is still unresolved.
Beyond an unclear Congressional majority, market participants are also concerned about October's consumer price index (CPI) report due out Thursday morning. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect headline CPI to increase by an annual rate of 7.9%, down slightly from September's gain of 8.2%.
Also driving market moves on Wednesday was the price of Bitcoin falling into a new bear market low as cryptocurrencies come under pressure as Binance looks to acquire FTX. The world's largest cryptocurrency dropped more than 15% to trade at its lowest level in two years, while other related stocks like Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) and Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) fell lower.
Elsewhere, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) confirmed Wednesday that it will cut more than 11,000 jobs, about 13% of staff, as the social media giant looks to restructure amid declining ad revenues.
"We're also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1," CEO Mark ZUckerberg said in a letter to employees Wednesday.
Disney (NYSE: DIS) was also in the spotlight Wednesday after the entertainment company posted a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter earnings report late Tuesday. Notably, the company reported a loss of more than $1.4 billion in its direct-to-consumer division, signalling a slowdown in the streaming market.
Elon Musk and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) continued to make headlines, with the latest news being that the new Twitter CEO has already rolled back the new account verification system Wednesday that began launching for some users earlier in the day.
"Please note that Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months," Musk tweeted Wednesday. "We will keep what works & change what doesn't."
Separately, Musk sold 19.5 million shares of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), worth $.395 billion, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The selling impacted the electric carmaker's stock, with shares down over 7%.