Wall Street seemed to celebrate a change in leadership at the White House, producing one of the best returns in nearly four decades on the day of the inauguration of a new president.
Read: The performance of the stock market under Trump is second only to Obama and Clinton
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
and the S&P 500 SPX index,
on Wednesday they rose 0.8% and 1.5%, respectively, to their best gains from the day they took office since Ronald Reagan took the oath of his second term in 1985, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Dow Jones market data
The 2% increase in the Nasdaq Composite Index marked the best recovery on Inauguration Day ever recorded.
Dow Jones market data
In addition to the considerable gains, the main benchmarks closed at historic highs.
Biden takes the reins as the nation continues to stagger with the COVID-19 pandemic and remains shaken by deep divisions in American politics, perhaps best highlighted by the violent invasion of the Capitol two weeks ago by Trump supporters, which resulted in the death of at least five people.
Watch: ‘Calculating’ ahead? Why investors continue to ignore US ’emerging market’ style
Biden emphasized the unity and recovery from the epidemic in his inaugural speech, with the 46th president proposing a $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that is likely to face challenges from Republican rivals reluctant to increase national deficits even for limit the depth of virus-induced disease to economic downturn.
Still, many investors see opportunities for additional gains in the market if vaccines help to generate a healthy, if not rapid, recovery from the pandemic sometime in the second half of 2021.