Dow Passes 23,000

NEW YORK (AP) —

A day of modest gains on Wall Street resulted in more milestones for U.S. stocks Wednesday as the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 23,000 points for the first time.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq composite also finished at record highs.

Technology stocks and financial companies led the gainers as investors weighed the latest batch of company earnings. Strong quarterly results drove IBM shares to their biggest one-day gain since 2009. Those gains accounted for much of the 30-company Dow’s record high.

All told, the Dow picked up 160.16 points, or 0.7 percent, to 23,157.60. The S&P 500 index rose 1.90 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,561.26. The Nasdaq added 0.56 points, or 0.01 percent, to 6,624.22. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gained 7.65 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,505.14.

The S&P 500 and Dow also set records on Monday and Tuesday.

The Dow closed above 22,000 for the first time on Aug 2, and since then the best-performing components have been Boeing, Caterpillar, Goldman, Home Depot and 3M. The Dow is up 3,395 points this year, or 17.2 percent.

Financial stocks led the gainers Wednesday. Goldman Sachs picked up $5.94, or 2.5 percent, to $242.03. Insurer Assurant climbed $5.94, or 6.2 percent, to $101.80.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.34 percent from 2.30 percent late Tuesday.

Oil prices recovered from an early slide. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 16 cents to settle at $52.04 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 27 cents to close at $58.15 a barrel in London.

Shares in drilling and oil production companies declined, part of a steep slide in energy stocks. Range Resources slid 45 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $19.

In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose a penny to $1.64 a gallon. Heating oil slipped a penny to $1.80 a gallon. Natural gas dropped 11 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $2.85 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold fell $3.20 to $1,283 an ounce. Silver slid 4 cents to $17 an ounce. Copper lost 2 cents to $3.18 a pound.

The dollar rose to 112.90 yen from 112.18 yen on Tuesday. The euro strengthened to $1.1802 from $1.1772.

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