NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Wall Street got what it wanted in Election 2002 -- a Republican sweep of both houses of Congress. But will it do any good?

Though a few races were still undecided as of 5 a.m. ET, it was already apparent that the Republicans would take enough seats to control the Senate and would hang on to their slim majority in the House of Representatives.

Many Wall Street analysts think Republican control of Congress will be the best thing for the economy and stock prices.

For one thing, they think an anti-business bias that has prevailed in the Senate this year as a result of the corporate accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and more will be toned down.

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"You can't get a strong economy if everybody's against business," said Mark Vitner, chief economist at Wachovia Securities. "It's awfully hard to create jobs if everybody's anti-business."

With Republicans setting the Senate's agenda, President Bush's corporate-friendly nominees for regulatory agencies will move more quickly toward approval, and several pro-business bills will get moving through the Senate, including:

-- an energy bill that would be a boon to various power stocks

-- a terrorism insurance bill, benefiting insurance and construction companies

-- and a liability lawsuit tort reform bill, benefiting the stocks of companies with exposure to asbestos, malpractice and other suits.

Many economists are most excited, however, by the prospect of easier tax laws under a Republican Congress. For one thing, President Bush will have a better chance of making last year's $1.35 trillion tax cut permanent.

"If Republicans were to regain control of the Senate, the probabilities of some major tax cuts would go up quite dramatically," Northern Trust economist Paul Kasriel said in an interview before the election. "If those tax cuts were implemented, this would have a positive impact on both the economy and the stock market."

Though Wall Street might salivate at the prospect of a Republican Congress, the rest of the country isn't so sure; in a CNN/Time magazine poll released recently, 44 percent of the more than 1,000 Americans surveyed thought Democrats were better at handling the economy, compared with just 39 percent who thought the Republicans were better.

"Wall Street tends to be predominantly Republican," said Les Alperstein, political analyst and president of Washington Analysis, an independent research firm formerly associated with HSBC. "But Wall Street is not middle America."

Some analysts believe a Republican Congress could worry individual investors, who might want a Congress that will be more aggressive about keeping business leaders from running off with their 401(k) money.

"Right now ... there's the perception out there that somehow the Republicans are taking care of our security a lot more than they are our economy," said Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc One Investment Advisors, in an interview before the election. "If we get full Republican control ... we may see it have a negative impact on confidence."

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Some of those concerns may be allayed with the election night resignation of SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt.

And fears of a return to the deficit spending that has characterized recent Republican presidential administrations could lead to a rise in interest rates, as fixed-income investors seek a greater return to match their expectations for higher inflation. Higher interest rates could put a damper on economic growth.

Still, Democrats have been known to spend money, too, and many economists thought Republicans might be more inclined to limit non-defense government spending.

In any event, it's unlikely Republicans will be able to get too carried away, because its majority in both houses of Congress is by no means overwhelming.

Many economists think gridlock is a bad thing during the current slowdown because they'd like to see tax cuts and other stimulative measures pushed through Congress.

But gridlock hasn't always been bad; the divided government of the late '90s, one of the stock market's best periods, meant Democrats couldn't pass new spending programs and Republicans couldn't pass new tax cuts.

"I don't think the economy is more likely to be better under the Republicans or the Democrats; a case can be made for each," said John Davidson, President and CEO of PartnerRe Asset Management Corp. "The importance to the economy is really more with the Federal Reserve [interest-rate] decision that takes place on Nov. 6."