Wall Street Greeted President-Elect Obama with a 486-Point Plunge of the Dow

What a huge difference one day can make!

Yesterday, when the election was still underway, investors, in anticipation of a Obama victory, pushed the Dow up nearly 305 points, the biggest gain ever on an election day.

Today, even before excitement from Obama’s historic win started to fade, investors re-focused their attention on the economy, instead of waiting for the president-elect to tell voters exactly what he’s going to do to address the crisis. To many, the only good news today is that Obama indeed won, in a decisive fashion. Other than that, there isn’t much to cheer about on the economic front: ADP Employer Services said companies cut 157,000 jobs last month, the most in six years, and the Institute for Supply Management reported the worst ever contraction of the service industries. At the end of the day, the gift the Wall Street sent to President-elect Obama is a 485-point plunge of the Dow, the largest drop ever on a day right after a presidential election.

More like “Buy on the rumor, sell on the news!”

Tomorrow could be even uglier. After the close, tech bellwether Cisco said it expects revenue of the current quarter can be as much as 10% lower than a year ago. On Friday, the monthly employment report is also unlikely to provide any relief.

The election is over, but the economy keeps getting worse.