U.S. stocks climb ; S&P 500 hits record high

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks ended mostly higher on Thursday, lifting the S&P 500 to a record finish, as Wall Street turned from the latest fiscal drama on Capitol Hill to corporate earnings that included better-than-expected results from Verizon Communications Inc.

Quarterly reports also included disappointing third-quarter revenue from a handful of high-profile companies, including Dow components International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) .

“We’re now going to shift our focus from Washington to earnings. It’s going to be an OK quarter, but not a barn burner by any stretch of the imagination,” said Phil Orlando, an equity strategist at Federated Investors.

“All we did was nudge the can a few feet, because we have to come back and do this again in January and February,” said Orlando of the agreements to finance government operations until Jan. 15 and hike the U.S. debt ceiling through the middle of February. The standoff that shut the government for 16 days is “absolutely having an impact on economic growth and consumer spending. I don’t know that folks in Washington get that,” he added.

Climbing above its Sept. 18 record finish of 1,725.52, the S&P 500 index (SNC:SPX) ended up 11.61 points, or 0.7%, at 1,733.15. It hit an intraday high of 1,733.45, surpassing the prior intraday high of 1,729.86 set on Sept. 19. Telecommunications performed the best and technology the worst of its 10 major sectors.

After a brief climb into positive terrain just ahead of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI JIA) lost 2.18 points to end at 15,371.65. It had fallen almost 145 points during the session. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-ind...2013-10-17