Wall Street seemed to welcome a change of leadership in the White House, with one of the best results in nearly four decades on the day of a new president’s inauguration.
Read: Only Obama and Clinton track stock market performance under Trump
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
and the S&P 500 index SPX,
Wednesday were up 0.8% and 1.5% for their best inauguration day earnings since Ronald Reagan took the oath of office for his second term in 1985, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Dow Jones Market Data
The Nasdaq Composite Index’s 2% rise marked its best inauguration day rally ever.
Dow Jones Market Data
In addition to significant gains, the main benchmarks closed at record highs.
Biden takes control as the nation continues to falter from the COVID-19 pandemic and remains concerned about deep divisions in US politics, perhaps best emphasized by the violent storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters two weeks ago that resulted in the death of at least five people.
See: ‘Settlement’ in advance? Why investors continue to ignore US emerging-market-style politics
Biden emphasized unity and recovery from the epidemic in his inaugural address, with the 46th president proposing a $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package likely to face challenges from Republican rivals who are reluctant to lift larger national deficits, even to the depth of the virus-induced economic recession.
Still, many investors see opportunities for further gains in the market if vaccines help bring about a healthy, if not rapid, recovery from the pandemic sometime in the second half of 2021.