Dow And S&P 500 Touch New Highs, Oil Prices Rising

The U.S. stock market seemingly can’t be stopped these days, as strong earnings from several industry giants helped the DOW and S&P 500 reach record intraday highs on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 115 points during regular trading hours Wednesday, hitting a new all-time high in the process. The index’s big move was spurred in part by Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) massive climb after it reported its second-quarter financial results, which have helped it jump 8.35% through early afternoon trading.

The airplane manufacturer added more than 100 points on Wednesday to move past Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) as the most expensive stock in the Blue-Chip index.

Solid early Wednesday gains from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) , Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) , General Electric (NYSE:GE) , and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) also helped the 30-stock index reach an intraday high of 21,742.70. The Dow is up 9.86% year-to-date.

S&P 500 & Nasdaq

The S&P 500 also reached new heights today, just one day after closing—yet again—at an all-time high of 2,477.13, on the back of big movement from Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) . The index opened at 2,479.97 and reached an intraday high of 2,481.69 on Wednesday.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) jumped 6.27% in intraday trading, which made it one of the biggest movers in the index. The S&P 500 is up 10.72% so far this year.

The Nasdaq also closed at a new high on Tuesday. The index reached a new all-time high of 6,432.38 during morning trading. However, it has dipped back below its open on Wednesday.

Oil

Oil prices rose on Wednesday after news reports showed a much larger drop in U.S. oil stockpiles than initially projected.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration noted that oil stockpiles in the U.S. dropped by 7.2 million barrels last week. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal projected a fall of about 2.6 million barrels.

This massive reduction in excess oil has helped U.S. crude oil prices rise 1.29% to $48.51 a barrel on Wednesday.

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