Dow, S&P 500 Rise Again, Nearing All-time Records

A report by the Federal Reserve said transport constraints and shortage of goods caused "significantly elevated prices" in most areas of the United States, slowing economic growth.

But with the latest batch of corporate results, investors are becoming more confident that higher consumer prices will not derail the recovery.

"We believe that the stock market has more to climb in this bull market and that some of the Covid headwinds are receding," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance.

While inflation is rising it means "many companies continue to have pricing power, which should preserve corporate profits," he said, a dynamic mentioned in the Fed's beige book report on the economy.

The Dow Jones, which touched an all-time intraday record, finished with a gain of 0.4 percent at 35,609.

The S&P 500 gained 0.4 percent to end at 4,536, less than a point from an all-time high. But the Nasdaq shed 0.1 percent to 15,121.

"October is a reversal of September because we're finding that the economy is strong," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital. "Companies are very profitable. I think it was really the financials that got everyone's attention."

Among individual companies, Netflix dropped 2.2 percent despite reporting results that topped expectations as global streaming hits like Squid Game drew viewers in droves.

The pullback comes on the heels of gains earlier in 2021 and as the streaming giant contends with fallout over a recent Dave Chappelle comedy special that activists say is harmful to the transgender community.

A few dozen Netflix workers staged a walkout and rally on Wednesday in Los Angeles calling for better representation at the Hollywood powerhouse.

Verizon climbed 2.5 percent after earnings topped analyst expectations on broadband subscriber growth.

Pinterest jumped 12.8 percent amid reports of possible takeover talks by online payment service provider PayPal. PayPal dropped 4.9 percent.

Biogen shed 0.6 percent after reporting sales of just US$300,000 in new Alzheimer's disease drug Aduhelm, a fraction of the US$12 million expected by analysts. (AFP)