Dow Closes At a Record, Joins S&P 500, Nasdaq At All-time Highs

U.S. stock-market indexes closed firmly higher Wednesday, with all of the main equity benchmarks notching records, as buying appetite resumed on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.3% higher at 21,640, as big gains in shares of Boeing Co. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. --bouncing back from Tuesday's selling--helped to more than offset a 4.2% tumble in shares of International Business Machines Corp. , which disappointed investors in second-quarter sales. IBM cut about 40 points from the price-weighted Dow, but the gauge still managed to finish squarely in the session green. The S&P 500 index rose 0.5% at 2,473, booking its own record, as did the Nasdaq Composite Index , which ended up 0.6% at 6,385. Small-capitalization stocks also joined the party, with the Russell 1000 and 2000 ending at all-time highs. Market sentiment was aided partially by an early climb in shares of Morgan Stanley , up 3.3%, after it reported earnings and revenue that topped expectations and bucked the trend of banks' shares sliding after releasing quarterly results. The investment bank run by CEO James Gorman helped to bolster investors' outlook for the remainder of earnings season, which thus far has helped to revive investor bullishness.