The battle for the White House may have months to run, but Wall Street is betting Barack Obama will win this November’s election, pouring more money into the Democrats’ coffers than into those of John McCain’s Republicans.

From the beginning of 2007 until April 30 this year, Senator Obama narrowly edged ahead of his recently defeated rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, garnering $7.9m (€5m) to her $7.1m from employees in the securities and investment industry, according to data from the website of research provider Center for Responsive Politics.