WASHINGTON: US markets opened higher on Tuesday, as voters across the country headed to the polls in one of the closest-fought presidential races for decades, which carries significant economic consequences.

The polls pointed to a close race ahead of Election Day between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and the Republican former president, Donald Trump, raising the prospect of a long vote count and days of uncertainty about the result.

“I think the market sentiment is very much of a wait-and-see, which makes a great deal of sense in this environment,” Art Hogan from B. Riley Wealth Management told AFP.

US stocks open big election week modestly lower

Shortly after the markets opened on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 percent at 41,848.30, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 5,735.59.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.6 percent to 18,291.31, fueled by a more than 16 percent rise in the share price of defense software firm Palantir after it reported better-than-expected earnings results.

“There’s obviously been a lot of uncertainty over the election, and, you know, whether it’s uncertainty over who the next president will be or what the make-up of Congress will be,” Hogan said. “It makes sense for investors to have a little nervousness and uncertainty.”

“Once that uncertainty dissipates, meaning once we have results, I think the market then moves on rapidly to what the Fed has to say,” he added, referring to this week’s interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve.

Futures traders overwhelmingly expect the US central bank to announce a quarter percentage-point rate cut on Thursday, according to data from CME Group.