The stock market is due a bounce after the election, regardless of who wins. But after that, the voter’s choice will have a big impact on industry winners and losers. Rick Pendergraft says biotech and alternative energy stocks should get a lift under Obama, while defense and oil will benefit from a McCain victory.

This from Investor’s Daily Edge:

It’s finally here.  The long awaited and hard fought election will end tomorrow (at least I hope we don’t see a repeat of 2000 where we don’t know who won for weeks).  Rather than make predictions about the election itself, I want to tell you how I think things will play out after the election.

First, I think the overall market will rally after the election regardless of which candidate wins.  There could be a knee-jerk reaction to the downside should Obama win, but this is part of the old belief that Democrats are

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Stem cell company's engage in research methods which some people find to be objectionable. President Bush has been one of the largest critics of their methods and has taken the extreme action of vetoing Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research twice. The coming change in administration will bring support for embryonic research (see positions of both candidates from wikipedia below) which means the companys engaged in that area of research will become eligible for federal funding for their research. Of course it will take time to pass the bills and get the money to the companys, but the perception of change is likely to be the catalyst for more investor awareness/ buying of the stocks. None of the stocks look bullish here, but some of the charts are improving. The stocks I am watching in this group are:ASTM, GERN and STEM. I am ...

Michael McFaul, who serves as Sen. Barack Obama's main Russia policy adviser, is quoted by Bloomberg tonight talking about his positions on engagement with Moscow, WTO ascension, and the missile shield issue. "Obviously, in contrast to Senator McCain, we don't believe in trying to isolate Russia,'' the adviser, Michael McFaul, a Russia expert at Stanford University, said in a phone interview today from California. "Those kind of actions we see as counterproductive in dealing with Russia.'' McFaul, who said he was giving his personal view and not the official policy of the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign, said it is in the U.S. interest for Russia to be in the WTO. He also said that a Russian offer to host elements of a planned U.S. missile defense at facilities in Russia and Azerbaijan "should be explored.''

The markets have become a carnival, as volatility hits an all-time high. Here's a summary of the damage.

[Note: Due to an editorial error, a version of this blog was published that included incorrect YTD performance numbers for a variety of ETFs. The correct version of the blog follows below.] 

As the panic sets in, a carnival-like atmosphere emerged on Wall Street, as former Lehman CEO Richard S. Fuld Jr. showed no sorrow and accepted no blame for the Lehman Brothers collapse. He did take "full responsibility" while effectively taking no responsibility. And it emerged on CNBC that shortly after the collapse, someone at Fuld's gym punched him in the face.

Meanwhile, VIX, the CBOE volatility index, broke 50, the highest level it has reached in its 18-year history.

As the market dropped off a cliff, down into the netherworlds of the low 9000s, and then soared back

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Justice Litle at Taipan Publishing has come up with a few 'fantasy' questions he'd like to ask the presidential candidates in their next debate. Of course, these would never pass the screening process. They are far to blunt for that.

Both presidential candidates want to crucify SEC Chairman Cox for failing to control our creative financial institutions. But rumor has it that Congress specifically excluded the devilish derivatives from SEC purview. Let’s fire the right bunch of “poips” for a change!

Scary markets are brought about by many factors, some normal, and some not so normal. It’s often helpful to look backwards before getting too paranoid about the present. The S & L crisis of the early 80s might be an appropriate starting point.

Later that decade, a multi-year rally had its head lopped off by high interest rates, high inflation, and a computer loop. Ten years later, another soaring market was toppled by economic factors. The turn of the century witnessed the bloody demise of the no-value-at-all dot-com illusion.

A profit taking strategy during the rally days was all that was …

Money Morning/The Money Map Report Where to start?  Market volatility is sure to continue for the indefinite future as investors, economists, analysts and politicos debate the merits of the federal government’s ongoing move – and try to make heads or tails out of the new financial landscape. Mega-financials that offer everything (deposits, lending, brokerage services, deal underwriting, wealth management, mergers & acquisitions deals) appear to be the wave of the future (is beleaguered Citigroup Inc. (C) suddenly ahead of its time?). Comparisons to past crises are emerging: The Great Depression, the savings & loan crisis, the junk bond collapse, Japan’s stock-and-real-estate implosion, and even Tulip Mania). Many investors have thrown in the towel (capitulation) and unloaded any and all financials (not to mention autos, airlines, and even technology stocks…anyone catch the 25,000 jobs lost at Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) or ...

Alright, we are going to look at this from to aspects. First from a purely economic point of view and then from a more pragmatic view. But before we jump into that, let’s quickly go over how the candidates feel. Obama, along with most Democrats, is wholly opposed to lifting the drilling ban. McCain recently flipped sides and is now saying that states should be able to decide whether or not to drill. For an economic point of view, we’ll turn to Kudlow’s Money Politic$. Kudlow reports that after Bush lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling, crude oil futures dropped 6.3%. So if this is any indication, even if offshore drilling proves to be of little direct help, it will still help drive down oil prices because of the effect on speculators. Kudlow says it better: Traders took a look at a ...

Obama and McCain both clearly feel like diplomatic relations with Iran are an important issue. Obama feels that diplomatic talks should be held, but military force is an option should Israel be an option. McCain feels like talks with President Ahmadinejad would be useless and only advance Ahmadinejad’s message. As usual, we won’t pick a [...]

As Jeff Miller on A Dash of Insight notes, Hillary and McCain are in favor of a plan that would make gas taxes go away for a while - just to help out the little people. How nice of them. Right? Not really. Barack Obama along with every reachable economic authority on the vast expanse of [...]