Stock Market Today: Stocks Rally on Election Day. Now, We Wait.

U.S. stocks shot higher out of the gate Tuesday and remained elevated throughout the session, leading to much prognostication about what message the market was trying to send about the presidential election.

Gun stocks and marijuana stocks improved, perhaps signaling optimism about a Joe Biden win. But there also was a run in financial stocks, which would largely benefit from a second Donald Trump term.

Perhaps, however, investors were cheered not by who they think will win, but the perceived margin of victory.

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"With the way the retail market is behaving, it's clear that investors are assuming a quick and early conclusion to the elections process," says Dan Raju, CEO of financial technology and brokerage services firm Tradier. "The very fact that the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq are all trading high on an election day indicates confidence."

"Investors are certainly not expecting a long period of uncertainty – they're feeling that things are predictable, contrary to many expectations pre-Election Day."

Either way, investors on both sides of the political aisle exited the session as winners, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing 2.1% to 27,480.

Other action in the stock market today:

• The S&P 500 climbed 1.8% to 3,369.
• The Nasdaq Composite improved by 1.9% to 11,160.
• The Russell 2000 popped 2.9% to 1,614.

What Comes Long After Tomorrow Passes?

It's all in voters' hands now. And considering that a firm presidential election result is unlikely to come in until later tonight (at the earliest!), we'll instead spend this space casting an eye toward the future.

For the final two months of the year, as well as throughout 2021, investors will be presented with several new options for growth – thanks to initial public offerings (IPOs).

Whether you like blue-chip powerhouses such as many of Warren Buffett's favorite growth holdings, or small-cap tech stocks that are increasingly making a name for themselves, they all have something in common: at least some track record of performance and loads of publicly available data.

IPOs, on the other hand, are more of a guessing game at first. But they're nonetheless popular among investors, especially in cases when they're for well-known brands that retail investors have long wanted to put money behind.

We have our eye on a baker's dozen of initial public offerings (IPOs) that are expected to launch in late 2020 or sometime next year. IPOs are far from slam dunks, so investors should proceed with caution, but each of these names has the potential to be an exciting addition to most growth portfolios.