Wall Street hits new highs on earnings optimism

Wall Street finished higher on Monday ahead of a slew of high-profile corporate earnings, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 to fresh records. The S&P 500 closed up 0.8 percent at 5,859.85, while the Dow ended the day up 0.5 at 43,065.22 -- the first time it has closed above 43,000. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9 percent to finish the day at 18,502.69, spurred by a 2.4 percent increase in the share price of chipmaker Nvidia, which closed at a new high. The market "just continues to sort of squeeze higher, led by primarily the mega cap stocks," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare. "You have a market that clearly is continuing to show no signs of breaking here," he added. "And that, I think, is kind of keeping people fearful about missing out on further gains." Elsewhere on Wall Street, McDonald's and UnitedHealth Group finished up 1.6 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. Traders are eying a busy week of earnings results ahead from US companies including Netflix, Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble. (AFP)