Wall Street ends atop record highs on strong earnings

US stock indices marked fresh record highs for Dow Jones, S&P 500, and NASDAQ Composite, buoyed by strong second-quarter earnings results for Boeing and T&T, and following the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting earlier today. 

Earlier US data showed new home sales rose below expectations in June, while the Federal Reserve voted to hold overnight interest rates unchanged at their range of 1.00% and 1.25% at its July 25-26 meeting, matching expectations.

Otherwise, the FOMC asserted its intention to start trimming down its massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year, putting a limit of $6 billion sales for treasury bonds in the first three months, and then increasing to $30 billion a month in a year, and another limit of $4 billion sales a month on mortgage-backed securities, before increasing them to $20 billion a month in a year. 

Dow Jones rose 0.45%, or 97.58 points to 21,711.01, while Standard and Poor's 500 gained 0.03%, or 0.70 points to 2,477.83. NASDAQ Composite added 0.16%, or 10.57 points to 6,422.75. 

Gold futures due on December 16 rose 0.68% to $1,267.00 an ounce from the opening of $1,258.50, marking the highest since mid-June, while the dollar index tumbled 0.59% to 93.50 from the opening of 94.05, marking the lowest since June 23, 2016. 

On another note, US crude futures due on September 15 jumped 1.77% to $48.74 a barrel from the opening of $47.89, while Brent crude futures due on September 15 rallied 1.41% to $50.91 a barrel from the opening of $50.20, after the EIA report showed a massive US inventory drawdown last week.