The Dow Jones Industrial Average breached the 23,000-mark for the first time on Tuesday, powered by strong earnings from UnitedHealth Group and Johnson & Johnson.
The blue-chip index has surpassed four similar 1,000-point milestones this year, indicating investor faith in the bull-run despite lofty stock valuations.
The TSX, meanwhile, was essentially flat, up 8 points to 15,810 late in the trading day.
The Dow was higher but the broader U.S. market was weighed down by losses in industrial, financial and technology stocks. Shares of the largest U.S. health insurer touched a life high, rising as much as 5.83 per cent, after the company reported a stronger-than-expected profit and raised its full-year earnings forecast.
That, along with a 2.6 per cent rise in Johnson & Johnson , led a 1 per cent gain in the S&P healthcare sector.
Goldman Sachs dipped 2.07 per cent despite reporting a profit beat and smaller-than-expected trading revenue fall. Morgan Stanley rose 0.92 per cent as its wealth management business insulated the bank from weakness in trading revenue.
General Electric’s 1.15 per cent fall led losses in the industrial sector, while drop in shares of Microsoft and Intel weighed on the tech sector. Netflix slipped 1.15 per cent after touching a record high as more subscribers signed up for its popular original content in the latest quarter.
“There was some good earnings, real good economic data in spite of the hurricanes,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.
“We’re not seeing a market that’s galloping along here.The market from a technical perspective is tired. What you’re seeing is some hesitancy but not any major declines.”
Treasury yields and dollar gained after a report that U.S. President Donald Trump was impressed by his meeting with economist John Taylor, who is considered to favour higher interest rates than current Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
The equity market, however, was not impacted by a report that Trump is likely to announce his choice before going to Asia in early November. The S&P 500 was down 1.1 points, or 0.04 per cent, at 2,556.54 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.98 points, or 0.05 per cent, at 6,621.02.
