U.S. stock markets opened to healthy gains Wednesday morning, even after election night counting failed to establish clear outcomes in the 2020 elections.
That led to a tumultuous night for stock futures, but stocks themselves rebounded on Wednesday.
At market close, the Dow Jones Industrial was up 370 points, or 1.4 percent, the S&P 500 was up 74 points, or 2.2 percent, and the NASDAQ was up 430 points, or 3.9 percent.
Through the night, stock futures fluctuated wildly as results in key states trickled in, and President Trump prematurely declared himself the winner, even as half a dozen swing states remained too close to call and continued to count millions of votes.
As of Wednesday morning, markets seemed to rise with the prospect of a divided government, which would hamper the political agenda for either Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, should he win the Electoral College, or President Trump should he win a second term.
One of the main questions in the air is the fate of a potentially enormous COVID-19 stimulus package, which officials such as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell say is crucial to the economic recovery.
Updated at 4:04 p.m.