Brendan
McDermid | Reuters: A
trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York.
•The Dow, along with the Nasdaq and the S&P, posted
strong monthly gains in July as corporate quarterly results have mostly topped
expectations
U.S. stocks traded higher on Tuesday, the first trading day
of August, as the Dow Jones industrial average approached another milestone.
The 30-stock index rose about 75 points to a new record,
with Goldman Sachs contributing the most gains. The Dow also traded near
22,000. The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent, with real estate and financials
leading advancers. The Nasdaq composite climbed 0.2 percent.
Dow futures briefly signaled the index would break above
22,000 for the first time. The Dow is coming off its strongest monthly
performance since February, having risen 2.54 percent. Shares of Boeing
contributed the lions share of the gains, adding more than 300 points to the
index.
The Dow, along with the Nasdaq and the S&P, notched
record highs in July as investors shrugged off news of the turmoil in
Washington as well as geopolitical tensions.
"The market wanted to go up and did, posting five
new closing highs in July, as it continued to watch the Floor, rather than the
man or groups in Washington," Howard Silverblatt, senior Index analyst at
S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Earnings season is well under way with most companies
topping expectations. Seventy-three percent of the S&P 500 companies that
had reported as of Friday had topped estimates on both the top and bottom
lines, according to data from FactSet.
