Stocks are gaining as the market digests — and attempts to understand — Citigroup's negative quarterly earnings report. What's really on traders' minds? Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services, offered his insights to CNBC.
"Everybody's talking about" the Senate vote in Massachusetts, Cashin said.
"The feeling is, should the Republican win, it will move a little closer to gridlock, which is something the market tends to like."
Why?
"If you have gridlock in Washington, it tends to mean people have to start cooperating with one another — and you don't get any rash enactment of laws."
He said there is a historical precedent for this view:
"In the past, when you've gotten closer to gridlock, the markets had a kind of sigh of relief."
(For Cashin's take on Citi vs. JPMorgan and the odds of a European double-dip, see the full interview.)
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Disclosures:
Disclosure information was not available for Cashin or his company.