Investing.com – US stocks closed higher as investors continued to bet on a solid quarter of corporate earnings amid the release of mostly bullish quarterly reports Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 26228.16. The S&P 500 closed 0.22% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 7460.29, up 0.71%.
With little on the economic calendar, earnings season continued to dictate direction in US equities as investors mulled over a raft of corporate earnings including a bullish quarterly earnings report from Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) which propelled the tech-heavy Nasdaq to close at record highs.
A flurry of analysts upgrades on Netflix followed the earnings beat amid expectations that the streaming giant would continue to ramp up subscriber growth despite ongoing competition.
"We believe that Netflix has achieved a level of sustainable scale, growth, and profitability that isn't currently reflected in its stock price," said RBC in a note to clients. "This conclusion is based on our assessment of Netflix's 55 million US subscriber and 63 million international subscriber bases, which makes Netflix one of the largest global entertainment subscription businesses."
Procter & Gamble, Travelers, Johnson & Johnson also reported earnings that topped analysts’ estimates while Verizon undershot the street’s estimates on the bottom line but beat on the top line.
Investors also cheered the end of the government shutdown Monday as members of the Senate voted late Monday 81-18 in favour of a bill to allocate funding through Feb. 8.
In corporate news, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) closed flat amid fading investor expectations for strong iPhone X sales after J.P. Morgan analyst Narci Chang wrote in a research note that "high-end smartphones are clearly hitting a plateau this year."
'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) rose 5%, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) up 4.5% and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) up 2.2%
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) down 4.3%, Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) down 3.1%, and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) down 1.2%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.