The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply Wednesday following President Obama’s re-election, as investors absorbed the reality that the same political players in Washington, D.C., now must address the nation’s so-called fiscal cliff, which looms at year’s end.

“You’ve got pretty much the same recipe as before -- a Democratic president and House Republicans,’’ said Nigel Gault, chief US economist for IHS Global Insight in Lexington. “If Obama says, ‘I insist on there being a tax increase for high-income Americans,’ and you have Congress saying, ‘No tax increases,’ you hit the cliff.”