--- title: The Stock Market Ultimately Doesn’t Care Who Wins the Midterms description: If you’re investing for the long term, experts say this the midterm election results shouldn’t change your strategy. authors: - name: Sarah Hansen role: Senior Writer url: https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/ bio: Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes. education: Northwestern University, New York University at_money_since: 2021 articles: 347 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/ former_staff: true editors: - name: Mallika Mitra role: Contributing Editor url: https://money.com/author/mallika-mitra/ bio: Mallika Mitra is a contributing editor for Money, based in Chicago. She has covered investing and retirement for seven years and her work has appeared in CNBC, Bloomberg, Kiplinger, AARP, Barron’s, Bankrate, The Daily Upside, ETF.com, The Bond Buyer, PLANADVISER, PLANSPONSOR and Investopedia. education: Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY Kalamazoo College at_money_since: 2020 articles: 395 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - CNBC - Bloomberg - Kiplinger - Barron's - Bankrate - WGN-TV - CBS News Radio - This Morning With Gordon Deal - Everyone's Talkin' Money social: - https://twitter.com/mitra_mallika - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallika-mitra-4577a386/ published: '2022-11-09T18:59:47.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T17:43:39.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - News - stocks word_count: 463 canonical: https://money.com/stock-market-midterm-elections-2022/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Illustration of a person dropping a ballot into a voting box that has a stock arrow breaking through it](https://img.money.com/2022/11/Investing-2022-Elections-Stock-Market.jpg) After much investor angst surrounding Tuesday’s midterm elections, stocks fell on Wednesday as the results — and control of Congress — remained unclear. The [S&P 500](https://money.com/how-to-invest-in-sp500/) index was down 1.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.2% as of midday Wednesday. Experts say those market doldrums may not last. “The market likes certainty over uncertainty,” says Callie Cox, U.S. investment analyst at the brokerage firm eToro. In the short term, the midterms tend to be a “welcome shot of certainty for the market.” That’s usually true no matter who wins the elections. “Data shows that the market tends to [perform well](https://money.com/stocks-rise-midterm-elections/) late in a midterm election year regardless of a blue wave, red wave, or a gridlock,” Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management, told Money via email. ## What election results mean for the markets As of Wednesday morning, many experts are expecting a split result with Republicans gaining control of the House of Representatives and Democrats maintaining control of the Senate. Cox says that political gridlock could have a major impact on some sectors in the medium term — especially alternative energy, oil and gas. With control of Congress split, major legislation surrounding those hot-button issues and industries is less likely to pass, she says. Markets are also contending with two factors Goldman says are more important than election results: the Federal Reserve's [monetary](https://money.com/fed-interest-rate-hike-november-2022/) policy and the threat of a corporate earnings recession (a significant slowdown in corporate profits that can happen with or without a broader economic recession). Cox notes that a gridlocked government might be less able to pass legislation to alleviate the effects of a recession, and that outcome could have ripple effects throughout the market. ## Midterm elections and investing strategy If you’re investing for the long term, you can take comfort in the fact that experts say this week’s election results shouldn’t change your strategy. “Whether it's Republicans, Democrats or a mixed-controlled Congress, we've tended to see markets move upward on average,” says Kevin Green, a senior researcher at Dimensional Fund Advisors. The chart below from Dimensional will give you an idea of just how true that is. No matter which political party controlled Congress — or if control of Congress has been mixed — the stock market has steadily risen since 1926. ![Chart of what history tells us about stocks and control of congress](https://img.money.com/2022/11/Investing-2022-Elections-Stock-Market-Chart.jpg) That growth happened despite daily, quarterly or even yearly fluctuations in the market. “If you're a long term investor, you really need to zoom out,” Cox says. “It's probably smart not to mix politics with your portfolio.” ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/stock-market-midterm-elections-2022/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Elections", "item": "https://money.com/elections/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Stock Market Ultimately Doesn’t Care Who Wins the Midterms" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/stock-market-midterm-elections-2022/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/stock-market-midterm-elections-2022/", "name": "The Stock Market Ultimately Doesn’t Care Who Wins the Midterms", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-11-09T18:59:47.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/stock-market-midterm-elections-2022/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/stock-market-midterm-elections-2022/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T17:43:39.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The Stock Market Ultimately Doesn’t Care Who Wins the Midterms", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/11/Investing-2022-Elections-Stock-Market.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "Investing-2022-Elections-Stock-Market" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/11/Investing-2022-Elections-Stock-Market-Chart.jpg", "width": 800, "height": 681 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Hansen", "url": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/#author", "description": "Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. 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