NEW YORK, July 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks continued to rally on Wednesday, with all three major indices hitting record highs, mainly boosted by strong corporate earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 97.58 points, or 0.45 percent, to 21,711.01. The S&P 500 rose 0.70 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,477.83. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 10.57 points, or 0.16 percent, to 6,422.75.
Shares of Boeing soared 9.88 percent Wednesday, after the Dow-component company posted better-than-expected earnings.
Boeing's second-quarter GAAP earnings per share increased to 2.89 U.S. dollars and non-GAAP earnings per share rose to 2.55 dollars. The company also raised its full-year earnings guidance.
Coca-Cola and Ford also posted quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street estimates.
This earnings season has been strong so far and pushed the major indices notched record highs recently.
Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the second quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 9.9 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 4.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday left its benchmark interest rates unchanged as expected amid soft inflation. But the central bank signaled that it would begin shrinking its balance sheet "relatively soon."
"The Committee expects to begin implementing its balance sheet normalization program relatively soon, provided that the economy evolves broadly as anticipated," the Fed's policy-making committee said in a statement released after its two-day meeting.
Market analysts had said the Fed might start the balance sheet reduction as early as in September. Enditem
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