Dow futures rocket 724 points as Democrats sweep Congress

Stock futures reversed hard on Wednesday. Contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 724 points, or 1.4%, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures each added about 1%, per CNBC. Just hours earlier, futures were deep in the red overnight.

The trigger: Democrats took control of Congress, and the AP projected Gina Hinojosa unseating Republican incumbent Greg Abbott in the Texas governor's race. Hinojosa has promised a moratorium on data centers in the state's tech heartland — a direct shot at the AI buildout trade. Tesla dropped 4.9% in premarket trading and Elon Musk's SpaceX slipped 4.8%, while neocloud players CoreWeave and Nebius fell 3.6% and 1%.

Bank of America U.S. economist Aditya Bhave offered a cooler read, noting the current pace of AI capex growth looks unsustainable and that slowing it now could trim recession risk later.

Renewables and healthcare were the day's darlings. First Solar rose 8.5%, Plug Power 10.6%, Sunrun 8.64%, Bloom Energy 5.8%, FuelCell Energy 6.24% and SolarEdge 4%. Molina Healthcare gained 6.3%, Centene 4.7%, UnitedHealth 1.4% and HCA Healthcare 1.44%. Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia all edged up, while Alphabet dipped about 0.4%. Defense names and prison operators lagged.

Safe havens got a bid too. Spot gold rose 2.93%, now at $4,043.45 an ounce, and spot silver jumped 4.44% to $51.98. Platinum climbed 2.47% to $1,465.30 and palladium added 5.93% at $989.

Overseas, Europe's Stoxx 600 added 0.44%, with Copenhagen-listed Orsted surging 7.3% and Vestas up 5.2% on hopes of a U.S. policy pivot. Asia closed mixed: Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.42%, China's CSI 300 rose 2.31%. Morgan Stanley Investment Management's Andrew Slimmon told CNBC's Squawk Box Europe that Washington is headed for gridlock — and markets, he said, like it that way. Trump told the Wall Street Journal he expects to work with Democrats, and AMD popped 6.3% premarket after blowout results.