Donald Trump won Tuesday's election to be the 45th president of the United States,calling for Americans to “come together as one united people” in aspeech in New York early Wednesday, while his Republican partyretained control of both houses of Congress.

"We are going to rebuild our infrascture…and we will putmillions of our people to work as we rebuild it," Trump saidWednesday. “We have a great economic plan,” Trump said,pledging that as president he would “double our growth and have thestrongest economy in the world.” He continued, saying "we will getalong with all other nations willing to get along with us.” He alsosingled out for praise Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who he said is“highly respected in Washington because he’s as smart as youget.”

Stock markets worldwide had reacted negatively to the electionresults, while U.S. stock and futures plunged. Once the U.S.markets opened for trading at 9:30 AM New York time, the volatilitycommon after presidential elections was on display. The S&P 500opened at 2125, then rose to 2145 just before 10:00, but by 11:00it stood at 2142, up 2.4 points, or 0.11 percent from November 8'sclose of 2139. The Dow Jones Industrials closed Tuesday at 18,332but rose to 18,424 at the market open; as of 11:00 AM it was up 67points, or 0.37 percent, to 18,400.

Following the election results the VIX volatility index futuresrose, as did the price of gold, and the value of the Mexican pesoplummeted. However, by 11:00 Wednesday morning the VIX had fallen2.54 points, or 13.55 percent, to 16.20 from Tuesday's close of18.74, indicating less volatility ahead, though it, too, showedwide swings on Wednesday.

Japan’s Nikkei index was off 5.3 percent on Wednesday, HongKong’s Hang Seng was off 2.2 percent, Germany’s DAX was off 1.2percent with four hours of trading left but the FTSE 100 was offonly 0.5 percent, also with four hours of trading left in the day,representing a much more tepid decline than was the case whenBritish voters opted to leave the European Union this summer in theBrexit election.

Gold was off 2.3 percent to $1,303 per ounce while the Mexicanpeso was off 8.5 percent; in what had been seen as a continuingharbinger of the election prospects, on Monday the largest U.S.listed Mexican ETF had attractedrecord inflows.

What accounted for the surprise results, since most polls showedClinton would defeat Trump? A clue was provided by politicalanalyst Greg Valliere last month. Speaking at the Schwab Impactconference, Valliere predicted a Clinton victory, but providedthis caveatabout pollsters famously getting election resultswrong, including the Brexit vote earlier this year in the U.K. andother foreign and domestic elections. “If you hold a controversialpoint of view,” like Brexit or are, perhaps, a Trump supporter, youare less likely to tell a “complete stranger who calls you up at8:00 at night and asks how you’ll vote” on such a sensitive subjectif you share what you know are controversial politicalviews.

In an interview last Friday at Commonwealth Financial Network'snational conference, CIO BradMcMillan positioned the presidential election as the"beginning of the show, not the end," since the issues raised inthe election stem from three major secular trends. The issuesthat have caused so much controversy in the 2016campaign, and the splits seen in both major parties, he said, aresymptomatic of “the 99 percent” being unhappy with their lot inlife. While Trump’s utterances may be 'outside' the policiesexpressed by both Democrats and Republicans over the past 50 years,they reflect strong feelings among the American public, so Trump ismore of a 'feature, not a bug.'