US close: Wall Street ends higher for a fifth consecutive month

Wall Street's main market gauges ended the day slightly higher to cap off a fifth consecutive month of gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.28% to 35,559.53, alongside a 0.15% rise for the S&P 500 to 4,588.96.

In parallel, the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.21% to 14,346.02.

Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets, said: "Earnings remain a key driver of markets as we move through the second quarter, with big hitters Apple and Amazon maintaining the tech theme this week.

"[...] With 51% of the S&P 500 having reported, this marks the halfway point for Q2 earnings season. It has been notable that those initial reports have seen the blended earnings growth rate for Q2 drop to -7.3% (vs 7% expected), despite seeing 80% of the companies outperform estimates."

In an interview with Yahoo, Chicago Fed chief, Austan Goolsbee, said of the central bank's next policy meeting: "There's nothing off the table, there's nothing specifically on the table."

Meanwhile, Market News International reported that its Chicago factory Business Barometer inched up by 1.3 points in July to reach 42.8.

That was a tad below the consensus for a reading of 43.3.

In corporate news, New Relic shares surged 13% after it agreed to be bought by Francisco Partners and TPG in a $6.5bn deal.

Palantir spiked 11% helped by a recent upgrade out of Wedbush Morgan, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK noted.

Nikola was another top gainer after inking a deal to sell 13 of its electric trucks to J.B.Hunt.

Dow Jones - Risers

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $88.89 3.20%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $163.66 3.02%
American Express Co. (AXP) $168.88 2.09%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $56.47 1.82%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $265.17 1.82%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $110.39 1.63%
Visa Inc. (V) $237.79 0.84%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $355.78 0.75%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $334.00 0.75%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $506.37 0.69%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $167.51 -3.98%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $35.77 -2.88%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $234.15 -0.94%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $61.93 -0.88%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $335.92 -0.72%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $172.62 -0.38%
3M Co. (MMM) $111.50 -0.34%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $293.15 -0.28%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $224.95 -0.26%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $52.04 -0.10%

S&P 500 - Risers

United Rentals Inc. (URI) $464.63 4.17%
National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) $20.08 3.77%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $546.17 3.27%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $88.89 3.20%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $438.97 3.10%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $163.66 3.02%
TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $18.65 2.98%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $64.56 2.97%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $107.24 2.96%
Centene Corp. (CNC) $68.09 2.89%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Fiserv Inc. (FI) $0.00 -100.00%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $167.51 -3.98%
Mettler Toledo International (MTD) $1,257.47 -3.90%
Baxter International Inc. (BAX) $45.21 -3.79%
Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) $121.77 -3.40%
Waters Corp. (WAT) $276.21 -3.35%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $35.77 -2.88%
T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (TROW) $123.26 -2.78%
Revvity, Inc. (RVTY) $122.95 -2.49%
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO) $548.60 -2.35%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Trip.com Group Limited (TCOM) $41.04 3.74%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $546.17 3.27%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $438.97 3.10%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $64.56 2.97%
Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL) $75.82 2.49%
Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $405.19 2.11%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $132.17 2.08%
Expedia Group Inc. (EXPE) $122.53 2.03%
Qurate Retail Inc. (QRTEA) $1.02 2.00%
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $41.31 1.92%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Fiserv Inc. (FI) $0.00 -100.00%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $35.77 -2.88%
T-Mobile Us, Inc. (TMUS) $137.77 -2.20%
Meta Platforms Inc. (META) $318.60 -2.11%
Hologic Inc. (HOLX) $79.42 -1.57%
CSX Corp. (CSX) $33.32 -1.42%
Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) $228.94 -1.39%
Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) $2,970.80 -1.38%
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) $247.26 -1.34%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $9.62 -1.33%