Investing.com – Wall Street continued to trade higher on Wednesday, with both the S&P and Nasdaq hitting fresh record highs, as investors digested earnings and positive results from Morgan Stanley outweighed disappointment from IBM .
At 11:18AM ET (15:18GMT), the Dow Jones gained 37 points, or 0.17%, the S&P 500 rose 7 points, or 0.27%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 30 points, or 0.48%.
Despite general gains, focus was on IBM (NYSE:IBM) as shares fell around 4%, leading decliners on the Dow, after the tech firm posted its 21st consecutive quarter of declining revenue late Tuesday.
Shares of CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) also sank around 5% after the rail transport company provided softer-than-expected second-half guidance, despite beating on earnings for the current quarter.
Providing some relief on earnings, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) headed more than 2% higher after the investment bank reported earnings per share of 87 cents on revenue of $9.5 billion in the April-June quarter. Analysts had expected EPS of 76 cents on revenue of $9.09 billion.
Results after the close are expected from American Express (NYSE:AXP), Alcoa (NYSE:AA), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS) and Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI).
In M&A news, shares in McCormick (NYSE:MKC) sank 5% after the U.S. condiment maker announced that it would buy Reckitt Benckiser 's (LON:RB) food business for $4.2 billion.
Shares in media companies Discovery Communications (NASDAQ:DISCA) and Scripps Networks (NASDAQ:SNI) shot higher on Wednesday after a Wall Street Journal report that they might merge.
In other big movers, shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) skyrocketed more than 20% after the company said that a new drug cocktail improved lung function in patients with cystic fibrosis.
On a light day for economic data, housing data surged past expectations in June, with housing starts and building permits increasing by 8.3% and 7.4%, respectively.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose to the highest levels of the session in North American trade on Wednesday, after data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a large drop in domestic crude and gasoline supplies.
Specifically, the EIA said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories fell by 4.7 million barrels in the week ended July 14.
Market analysts' expected a crude-stock decline of around 3.2 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply-gain of 1.6 million barrels.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.34% to $47.02 by 11:20AM ET (15:20GMT), while Brent oil traded up 1.31% to $49.48.