A Midterm Vote Ripples Through Markets, the White House and the Middle East

The Voters Redraw the Map

The week began with President Trump barnstorming Iowa and Kansas — two states Republicans had won previously — in a final push before Tuesday's midterms, as the last round of polls showed Democrats edging ahead in key Senate races. Toss-up contests in Alaska, Texas and Iowa loomed over a night that, Fox News reported, would also be shaped by ballot measures and staggered poll closings. NPR flagged voter groups that had soured on Trump in his second term as a central storyline.

The legal fighting ended before the voting did. On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected — within about seven hours of receiving it — the Trump administration's request to force California to set aside roughly 20,000 ballots the Justice Department claimed were cast by likely noncitizens, closing out the department's pre-election effort in the state on the eve of the election.

By week's end the result was clear: Democrats clinched control of both chambers. Republicans lost at least five Senate seats, a source said, and Sen. John Thune moved to run for Senate minority leader. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries formally launched his bid for speaker and is expected to lead the incoming majority. On Friday came the administration's first major personnel change since the losses: Trump announced Stephen Miller will replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. Wiles served 21 months, the longest of any Trump chief of staff, Fox News reported, and NPR said the move signals a pivot toward governing by executive action.

Markets Whipsaw on the Results

Wall Street spent the week processing what the election means — and reached two very different conclusions on consecutive days. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its best single-day gain in 18 months in a broad relief rally. Bond yields fell and crude oil dropped below $100 a barrel as traders bet the Democratic sweep would increase pressure on Washington to wind down the Iran war. A widely circulated post by Vice President JD Vance blaming the war amplified the move.

Thursday brought the reversal. The S&P 500 lost an estimated $2.9 trillion in market capitalization, the largest one-day loss of market value on record, as tech stocks logged their worst day since 2020 and the Nasdaq fell more than 5% into correction territory — its third correction of the year. Investors feared a Democratic-controlled Congress and newly elected state officials would crack down on AI and data centers. The rout spread to Asian and European markets Friday, with London's FTSE falling 1.5%.

The tech anxiety was not uniform. AMD reported $13.4 billion in third-quarter revenue on strong AI chip sales — its largest and most profitable quarter ever, CEO Lisa Su said — and shares rose 8%. Elsewhere in business news, 3M agreed to pay up to $7.35 billion to settle personal-injury and groundwater-contamination claims tied to PFAS 'forever chemicals' used in firefighting foam, one of the largest environmental-health settlements in U.S. history. The figure is a ceiling, not a guaranteed total.

War, Aid and a Coalition Clock

The Middle East ran through the week's politics at home and abroad. On Election Day itself, Trump announced the U.S. will halt roughly $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel starting in 2027, describing Israel as a 'thriving' country that no longer needs the assistance. The U.S. will continue selling arms to the ally, Trump said, and he tied the decision partly to domestic politics, saying Democratic candidates were using U.S. military support for Israel against Republicans.

On Saturday, Trump confirmed the U.S. carried out 'minor strikes' on Iran after Iranian media reported two missiles hit Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz — even as Vice President Vance, Axios reported, has spent two weeks personally involved in indirect talks with Iran aimed at a new ceasefire and a resumption of nuclear talks. Iran has threatened to attack subsea communications cables if U.S. strikes escalate, and Ars Technica reports suspicious vessels loitering near critical undersea infrastructure.

In Israel, President Isaac Herzog formally tasked opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot — a former chief of the Israeli military — with forming the next government after neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc nor his rivals secured a parliamentary majority. Eisenkot has 28 days to assemble a coalition; if he succeeds, the new government could end Netanyahu's long tenure. Closer to home, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a rumored 2028 presidential candidate per DW, commuted all 548 of the state's death sentences to life without parole in one of his final acts as governor, emptying the nation's largest death row. The move drew criticism from victims' rights advocates, Fox News reported. And in Florida, a private Learjet en route from Austin to the Bahamas crashed into a Greenacres neighborhood near Mar-a-Lago, killing all nine aboard in what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called a 'horrific tragedy.'

What to Watch This Week

The week ahead opens quietly by comparison. The U.S. observes Veterans Day, with federal offices and banks closed as the nation honors its military veterans.

And a note from the history books: asked what he thought upon discovering X-rays on this date in 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen replied, 'I did not think; I investigated.'