Wall St. moves higher; traders cite vote projections

By Yashaswini Swamynathan and Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks moved higher on Tuesday afternoon, with market sources citing projections from data firm VoteCastr favouring Democrat Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election.

The former secretary of state is favoured by investors as they see her lending greater clarity and stability to the markets, while Republican nominee Donald Trump's stance on foreign policy, trade and immigration is more uncertain.

"VoteCastr ...is absolutely helping the market move higher," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. "Investors will take whatever data they can get, though although I really don't know how accurate the data is."

Data company VoteCastr is providing real-time election information, distributed through news outlets that include Slate.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 135.22 points, or 0.74 percent, to 18,394.82; the S&P 500 gained 14.8 points, or 0.69 percent, to 2,146.32; and the Nasdaq Composite added 46.97 points, or 0.91 percent, to 5,213.15.

Stocks opened slightly lower, then turned positive and extended morning gains.

Clinton has a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump, according to the final Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll released on Monday.

She was on track to win 303 votes in the electoral college to Trump's 235, clearing the 270 needed for victory. She also leads Trump by about 44 percent to 39 percent in the popular vote, according to the poll.

"VoteCastr has Clinton ahead in every state it's following, except for Pennsylvania," said Win Thin, global head of emerging market currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

"If you look at the market, stocks are up, yen and Swiss franc are down, gold is down, bonds are down, Mexican peso up," Thin said. "All these markets are trading like Clinton is winning."

In stocks, advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by 1,839 to 1,016, for a 1.81-to-1 ratio on the upside. On the Nasdaq, 1,662 issues rose and 1,027 fell for a 1.62-to-1 ratio favouring advancers.

The S&P 500 index showed 20 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 50 new highs and 65 new lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru, Dion Rabouin and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Megan Davies and Savio D'Souza)