Stocks ended mostly higher Thursday as investors repositioned their portfolios after the presidential election.
The Dow closed at a new all-time high, adding 218 points with IBM and Goldman Sachs contributing the most gains. The S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent.
The Nasdaq composite underperformed, briefly falling 2 a percent as the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) more than halved gains while the so-called FANG stocks -- Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet -- all fell. The index ended 0.8 percent lower.
Donald Trump's victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton sent shock waves through global financial markets, with Dow futures falling more than 800 points as election results kept coming in. But Wednesday's cash session saw a 1 percent rally, as investors and traders unwound several trades associated with a Clinton victory, particularly within the financials and health care sectors.
"There are three things you need to contemplate. First, the lessons learned from Brexit," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities. "We know what happens in a Brexit-like sell-off. You get a knee-jerk reaction to the downside and then we move higher very quickly; we just sped up the process on that."
"Second, it's the fact that we got conciliatory speeches from both candidates," he said. "Third, you have the potential for growth policies to be put forward" with Republicans controlling the White House and Congress.
U.S. Treasury yields continued their assent as well, with the two-year note yield around 0.907 percent and the benchmark 10-year yield at 2.122 percent.
"I'm optimistic that we will see faster growth over the next four years with the coming changes in policy (hopefully no trade protection and the economic wars it brings) but in the context of the bond bubble that is now leaking and the collateral asset prices bubbles it has spawned there will be a bumpy bridge between the current environment and fully enjoying the benefits of that hoped for faster growth," Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said in a note.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency's performance against a basket of currencies, rose 0.5 percent Thursday, with the euro near $1.087 percent. The safe-haven yen fell more than 1 percent versus the greenback, trading around 106.84.
Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM, said the dollar's "resurgence was also complimented by the renewed speculations of the Federal Reserve raising US interest rates in December that encouraged buyers to attack. This week's aggressive dollar rebound may be fully Trump driven with more time needed for the Greenback to find some normality."
Market expectations for a Fed rate hike in December were around 81.1 percent Thursday morning, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
On the data front, weekly jobless claims totaled 254,000, below the expected 260,000. Federal budget data for October is also due at 2 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said the central bank is still due for a single rate hike and then hold.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose nearly 7 percent, while European equities traded slightly higher, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index gaining 0.6 percent.
