Investing.com – U.S. stocks resumed their march toward record highs amid a surge in investor demand for riskier assets following better-than-expected earnings from Ford and Twitter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 23,400. The S&P 500 closed 0.13% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6556.77, down 0.11%.
U.S. stocks started the session on the front foot as both Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations on both the bottom and top line, lifting the broader indexes higher.
Shares of Twitter closed more than close 18% higher after indicating that recent measures to improve revenue are starting to take shape, edging the company closer to posting its first profitable quarter.
"This quarter we made progress in three key areas of our business: we grew our audience and engagement, made progress on a return to revenue growth, and achieved record profitability," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in a statement.
The rally in Twitter comes ahead of trio of top-tier corporate earnings from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) due after U.S. markets close.
A mixed batch of economic data, meanwhile, showed initial jobless claims rose less-than-expected while existing home sales growth remained tepid.
The end of the trading week culminates with the release of U.S. economic growth data due Friday, expected to confirm the economy grew at 2.5%, cooler than the 3.1% growth achieved in the second quarter.
'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) up 3.5%, DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) up 1.3% and American Express Co (NYSE:AXP) up 2.2%
3M Company (NYSE:MMM) down 1.9%, Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) down 1.2% and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) down 0.8%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.