Dow Industrials On Pace To Register 7th Straight Record

Stocks opened higher Wednesday, putting the Dow industrials on track to log its seventh record closing high in a row, fueled by better-than-feared quarterly results. Notably, Morgan Stanley reported second-quarter results thatbeat Wall Street's expectations, lifting the investment bank's shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 18,601, the S&P 500 index climbed 0.2% at 2,167, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4% to 5,056. On Tuesday, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished lower as the broader market retreated after disappointing quarterly results from Netflix Inc. . Meanwhile, crude-oil prices were trading 1.6% lower at $44.74 a barrel, ahead of data on inventories.