Wall Street was relieved with the inauguration going off without a hitch, despite the threat of unrest.

Liz Miller is president of Summit Place Financial Advisors.

"The inauguration is actually very important. We did see all the major indices sort of dipping around 11 o'clock going into it, and then it's coming out of that rather smooth transition, at least compared to what was expected and those who were enthused by the messages of hope in the future, driving the major indices to new highs into the afternoon."

By the closing bell: The Dow rallied 257 points. The S&P 500 jumped 52. The Nasdaq surged 260.

Politics could only take partial credit for the rally.

Netflix was, by far, the star of the day. The streaming media giant, which has been besieged by a growing list of new challengers, said it will no longer need to borrow billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and movies. The main reason: it continues to take in millions of new paying subscribers. Netflix ended last year with more than 200 million paying customers worldwide. Shares of Netflix surged 17 percent to an all-time high.

Netflix's quarterly results fueled enthusiasm for other tech companies like Google parent Alphabet - who have yet to report quarterly results. Alphabet shares jumped to a record high as well.

In other high-profile earnings, Morgan Stanley, the last of the big U.S. banks to report, smashed estimates thanks to strength in its trading unit.

Procter and Gamble, one of the world's largest consumer products companies, boosted its full-year sales guidance for the second time after demand for its cleaning products remained at an elevated level due to the health crisis.