Wall Street heads for mixed start as markets digest Georgia election results

Wall Street is expected to see a much tamer session, with futures pointing at a green open for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a red one for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The US is focusing on politics once again as the results of the dual Senate election in Georgia should be announced later today. The upper house is currently controlled by the Republicans and the Democrats need to win both seats to have a tiny majority in the Senate. “The elections are going down to the wire and it was reported that Raphael Warnock of the Democrats is projected to win his race,” noted David Madden at CMC Markets. “Joe Biden has big plans with respect to infrastructure spending so Democrats taking the Senate would make his life a lot easier.”         According to Marshall Glitter at BDSwiss Group, a win by both Democrats would mean a weaker dollar because the Fed is in no mood to hike rates any time soon. “I think they’ve switched to targeting unemployment rather than inflation, and it will take a long time before US unemployment gets back to where it was,” he said. “Meanwhile, higher inflation and steady low yields equals lower real yields which equals a weaker dollar.” Four things to watch for on Wednesday: Aside from the results from Georgia, other political news will also be dominating the headlines as Congress gathers for the formal counting of the electoral college votes and to officially certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory. While this process is usually a formality, there is potential for fireworks as several Republican politicians have said they will formally object to the results as they are counted Macro data in focus today will be the US ADP employment data for December, which is expected to show a slowdown in private sector employment growth to 88,000 jobs added in the month compared to 307,000 in November Other economic data that may attract interest is the US services PMI for December and factory orders for November The results calendar will see a small spark of big cap action with second quarter earnings due from building materials maker RPM International Inc (NYSE:RPM)