What happened

Shares of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) surged on Wednesday, rising as much as 5.7%; the stock closed the trading day up 5.4%.

The stock's gain was likely primarily fueled by the market's overall rise on Wednesday, as some investors bet a divided Congress -- with Democrats gaining majority in the House of Representatives and Republicans maintaining control of the Senate -- would reduce the risk of potentially disruptive economic policy.

The Netflix logo outside company headquarters

Image source: Netflix.

So what

Capturing the momentum in the overall stock market, the S&P 500 rose 2.1% on Wednesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw an outsize gain of 2.6%. The market's gains on Wednesday helped Netflix and other megacap tech stocks like Amazon and Apple move higher as well; the latter two stocks finished Wednesday up 7% and 3%, respectively.

Now what

While it's often worth looking into what may be moving a stock up or down when the moves are large, investors should stay focused on the fundamentals -- especially when the move is attributable to factors unrelated to the underlying business.

Last month, Netflix added 7 million streaming members to its services, crushing analyst estimates for member growth. In addition, the company guided for an impressive 9.4 million net member additions in its fourth quarter.
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