The U.S. markets may feel like they're holding their breath, but electing a president will not have earth-shattering effects on stocks, strategists said Tuesday.
"We're sort of putting everything into the election box right now," UBS' strategist Mike Ryan said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
From merger and acquisition activity to earnings, Ryan said not every market move can be attributed to election scandals and the "priced-in" outcome — a Democratic White House and a largely Republican Congress.
"We do need to separate the M&A cycle from the election cycle," said Ryan, UBS' chief investment strategist. "Companies will make decisions on what they see as the long-term return opportunities that they see in the market, so what you're seeing now is more strategic M&A."
Deutsche Bank's David Bianco agreed on "Squawk Box" that the election results will not have a profound and immediate impact on markets.
Both strategists said they believed earnings season was turning out better than expected, especially for banks, and the positive earnings reports have few, if any, ties to the presidential election.
"I think [with] the election, a lot of investors are realizing that we have to see what Congress looks like, we have to see what the first 100 days of policy look like," said Bianco, Deutsche Bank's chief U.S. equity strategist. "I think what we're realizing here is that there's a lot of political uncertainty that's going to be with us beyond the election."
Still, both strategists predicted a market move higher after the election, though Ryan's prediction only stands in the case of the priced-in result.