Already by the beginning of trading on Tuesday, Election Day, President Obama was the odds-on favorite of winning, according to Intrade, the electronic futures market. And the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -2.16% nevertheless rose 133 points. So it’s difficult to blame a big day-after decline on his re-election—unless you also want to credit Tuesday’s big gain to the likelihood of that happening.

The market’s reaction to President Obama’s victory four years ago ended up telling us next to nothing about the subsequent four years. On Nov. 5, 2008, the day after that election, the Dow plunged more than 5%. And yet the Dow today is several thousand points higher than where it stood then.

Source: Marketwatch.com