The Dow Jones industrial average added about 28.33 points to close at 6,206.04, erasing an early 28-point drop to move above 6,200 for the first time.
Advancers outnumbered decliners by a 4-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,429 up, 1,074 down and 789 unchanged.
NYSE volume totaled 500.74 million shares vs. 509.04 million in yesterday.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 3.05 to 727.64, and the NYSE's composite index rose 1.36 to 384.91.
The Nasdaq composite index rose 8.65 to 1,254.14, and the American Stock Exchange index rose 1.38 to 579.25.
Stocks rallied Tuesday and yesterday after voters reaffirmed what has thus far been a winning Washington combination for Wall Street: a Democratic president and a Republican-led Congress that have kept each other, federal spending, and any sweeping government initiatives in check.
The Dow industrials, which soared more than 33 percent in 1995 during the first full year of the divided federal government, has now risen by more than 21 percent this year and more than 3 percent since its first close above 6,000 less than a month ago.
The Treasury market recovered this afternoon following a successful auction of $10 billion in new 30-year bonds, the last leg of this week's quarterly debt refinancing by the federal government.
As bond prices fell this morning, the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond -- a key determinant of corporate and consumer borrowing costs -- rose as high as 6.68 percent, up from late yesterday's 6.61 percent and late Tuesday's seven-month low of 6.58 percent.
But as bonds rallied this afternoon, the yield sank below 6.54 percent, its lowest reading since March 8, when interest rates soared as a monthly employment report sent inflation shivers through the financial markets.
The technology sector also continued to ride a wave of Election Day enthusiasm.
Intel, which surged as the Nasdaq market's most active issue, late Wednesday greeted the defeat of California Proposition 211 with an upbeat forecast of its fourth quarter results. The California ballot proposal would have made it easier for shareholders to sue companies for fraud over such projections.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average fell 1.0 percent, Frankfurt's DAX index fell 0.6 percent, and London's FT-SE 100 fell 0.9 percent.