Wall Street spent Election Day looking in two directions at once, and anyone tracking the numbers behind buying a home in Myrtle Beach got a session shaped more by sector rotation than by the vote itself. Chip stocks rebounded sharply ahead of AMD’s earnings report after the closing bell, lifting the Nasdaq, while Apple’s disappointing margin guidance weighed on the price-sensitive Dow. Polls stayed open across the country as investors weighed early signs of a possible Democratic sweep of the House and Senate, oil eased on renewed hope for U.S.-Iran diplomacy, and Treasury yields ticked higher on a batch of surprisingly strong economic data. Mortgage rates, which had settled into their calmest stretch in weeks, mostly held their ground. Here’s what moved in the markets today, where rates stand heading into Wednesday, and what today’s numbers mean in real dollars for anyone working on buying a home in Myrtle Beach right now.
Today’s Market Snapshot
It was a split session driven by rotation rather than a broad verdict on the economy. Heading into the close, the Nasdaq Composite was the strongest performer, up roughly 258 points, or about 1.0%, to trade near 25,422, as chip and semiconductor names bounced back from three straight losing sessions. The S&P 500 followed with a gain of around 41 points, or 0.55%, near 7,583, while the small-cap Russell 2000 added about 22 points, or 0.79%, to trade near 2,828. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the lone holdout, down roughly 129 points, or 0.25%, near 51,855, dragged lower almost entirely by Apple, whose stock fell after the company’s otherwise solid fiscal fourth-quarter report came with a soft gross-margin forecast of 45% to 46% that disappointed investors. Because the Dow is price-weighted, a single expensive stock like Apple can move the whole index even while the broader market is calm. The CBOE Volatility Index eased to around 20.5, down roughly 3% on the day, a sign traders weren’t bracing for a dramatic overnight surprise despite the packed news calendar.
Underneath the headline numbers, the real story was a rotation back into chips. AMD, Broadcom, Micron, Nvidia, and Intel all climbed ahead of AMD’s third-quarter results, due after today’s close and widely watched as a read on whether AI-related demand is holding up after a rough stretch for the sector. Palantir shares fell despite beating earnings estimates, as investors focused on decelerating new contract bookings rather than the headline beat. Oil eased on hopes that the U.S. and Iran, through intermediaries, are making progress toward de-escalating their standoff, reversing an earlier spike tied to reports of a U.S. strike near an Iranian position. Gold slipped alongside the modest pickup in risk appetite, trading down about 1% near $3,934 an ounce. On the economic data front, a stronger-than-expected manufacturing survey and a September job-openings report showing roughly 7.5 million open positions gave the bond market a reason to push yields a bit higher — a dynamic that matters for anyone watching the rate side of buying a home in Myrtle Beach.
The Rate Picture for Buying a Home in Myrtle Beach: Yields Tick Up on Strong Data
This is the section that matters most for anyone actively working on buying a home in Myrtle Beach, and today’s story is a modest step in the less favorable direction after a stretch of welcome calm. The 10-year Treasury yield, which mortgage rates track most closely, climbed to roughly 4.95% today, up about 4 to 5 basis points from Monday’s close near 4.91%. The move wasn’t tied to one dramatic headline; instead, it reflected a batch of economic data — a stronger manufacturing reading and higher-than-expected job openings — that reinforced the view that the economy isn’t cooling as quickly as some had hoped, which tends to push bond yields, and the mortgage rates tied to them, modestly higher.
Same-day mortgage rate trackers mostly shrugged off that move, putting the 30-year fixed at approximately 7.27% today, unchanged from Monday and still tied for its lowest level since late September. Freddie Mac’s official weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, last released Thursday, October 29, still shows the 30-year fixed-rate average at 7.24%, down from 7.32% the week before — the most current official read, since the next weekly figure won’t post until this coming Thursday, November 5.
The year-over-year comparison remains the number that matters most for anyone wondering whether to wait out today’s rate environment. Freddie Mac’s survey from the comparable week in 2025 put the 30-year fixed at 6.17%. Even with today’s relatively calm rate backdrop, current mortgage rates sit more than a full percentage point above where they stood twelve months ago — a gap that becomes far more concrete once it’s translated into an actual monthly payment.
The Real Math: What Today’s Rates Actually Mean for Your Payment
Percentages alone don’t tell a buyer much, so let’s run the numbers using the standard 30-year amortization formula on a $375,000 loan, a realistic size for a solid share of Grand Strand purchases this time of year.
At this week’s Freddie Mac rate of 7.24%, the monthly principal and interest payment on that $375,000 loan comes to $2,555.62. That’s actually $20.37 less per month than last week’s official rate of 7.32%, which worked out to $2,575.99 — a reminder that even with today’s uptick in Treasury yields, the broader direction over the past week has still been favorable. Today’s same-day tracker rate of 7.27% produces a nearly identical payment of $2,563.25, just $10.17 more than the comparable tracker reading of 7.23% from a week ago on Tuesday, October 27.
The more meaningful number, as always, is the year-over-year comparison. At last year’s comparable Freddie Mac rate of 6.17%, that same $375,000 loan would have cost just $2,289.46 a month. That means today’s buyer is paying $266.15 more every single month, or roughly $3,194 more a year, than a buyer who locked in a rate twelve months ago on an identical loan. Run the same comparison on a smaller $300,000 loan and the year-over-year gap narrows to $212.92 a month, or about $2,555 a year — proof that a lower starting loan amount genuinely cushions the impact of today’s elevated-rate environment.
Why Buying a Home in Myrtle Beach Still Makes Sense on a Split Election Day
A session where chip stocks rally almost 1% on the Nasdaq while the Dow falls on one company’s earnings guidance can look confusing scrolling through headlines on Election Day, but it’s worth separating the sector-specific moves rattling Wall Street from the fundamentals that actually drive the market for buying a home in Myrtle Beach. Today’s divergence was about rotation and a single stock’s margin outlook, not a broad verdict on the economy, and none of it bears directly on Grand Strand home prices, local inventory, or the rate a lender quotes next week. The modest uptick in Treasury yields tied to today’s economic data is a more relevant signal, but even that shift was measured in single-digit basis points.
The more durable story for anyone focused on buying a home in Myrtle Beach remains what more than a year of elevated borrowing costs has done to this market. Fewer buyers can comfortably qualify at rates still sitting in the low-to-mid 7% range, which means less competition for well-priced listings, homes sitting longer before going under contract, and sellers considerably more willing to negotiate than during the ultra-low-rate years. Price reductions, closing-cost credits, and seller-funded rate buydowns remain realistically on the table for a well-prepared buyer — leverage that doesn’t evaporate just because one day’s bond-market jitters push yields a handful of basis points higher.
South Carolina’s broader cost of living continues to do a lot of quiet work here as well. The loan-size comparison above makes the point plainly: an identical rate move costs a $375,000 borrower noticeably more in absolute dollars than a $300,000 borrower, even though the percentage move is the same for both. A smaller typical loan amount is a real cushion against rate volatility, and it’s one of the clearest advantages of shopping the Grand Strand over a comparably sized home in a pricier part of the country, where the same rate swing stings more simply because the underlying loan amounts run larger to begin with. Browse what’s currently available along the coast to see what today’s rates and prices translate to in real, available listings.
What Election Night and AMD’s Earnings Mean for Buyers
A day where chip stocks rally and the broader market splits naturally raises the question of what comes next, and tonight brings two genuine catalysts: midterm election results, with prediction markets leaning toward a Democratic sweep of the House and Senate, and AMD’s third-quarter earnings report after the closing bell, which investors are treating as a referendum on whether AI-related chip demand is still as strong as the market has priced in. Neither event is likely to move mortgage rates dramatically on its own, but a surprise in either direction could push bond yields, and therefore mortgage rates, in a less predictable direction over the next few sessions.
The practical approach holds up regardless of how tonight’s results or tomorrow’s earnings reaction land: marry the house, date the rate. Buy the right home at a price today’s market supports, and refinance later if rates ease further. Getting pre-approved now, before a specific property is even on the table, remains one of the most useful moves available in a market like this one — it replaces a confusing headline percentage with an actual rate and budget, and puts a buyer in position to move decisively the moment a motivated seller is ready to talk.
The bottom line: a split session driven by sector rotation rather than economic alarm, a modest uptick in Treasury yields tied to stronger-than-expected data, and a mortgage rate backdrop that has largely held near multi-week lows even on a day with plenty to react to. For anyone serious about buying a home in Myrtle Beach before year’s end, the negotiating leverage built up over a year of elevated rates remains squarely in the buyer’s favor.
If you’d like help running these numbers for your own situation, connect with our team and we’ll walk through exactly what today’s rates and your specific loan amount mean for your budget, rather than leaving you to guess from a single day’s headlines.