NEW YORK, July 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks continued to rally on Wednesday, with major indices hitting record highs, boosted by strong corporate earnings.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 104.09 points, or 0.48 percent, to 21,717.52. The S&P 500 rose 2.05 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,479.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 10.27 points, or 0.16 percent, to 6,422.44.
Shares of Boeing soared over 8.5 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, Wall Street also awaited a monetary policy announcement from the Federal Reserve.
Traders have been widely expected the central bank will leave interest rate unchanged this time. Market expectations for a rate hike were just 3.1 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
However, investors will be looking for hints about the central bank's next move and when the bank might start shrinking its balance sheet. Enditem
