US stocks rose on Wednesday as investors digested a fresh inflow of quarterly earnings, with the debate over timing of interest rate cuts still rumbling in the background. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.4%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) popped more than 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was up more than 0.8%. The S&P 500 reached as high as 4,995 on Wednesday, nearing 5,000 for the first time ever.
The market took stock of performance this earnings season, with about two-thirds of S&P 500 company reports now in. Results have on average beaten Wall Street expectations, but some areas of weakness have emerged. In Wednesday's morning trade, Alibaba (BABA) shares retreated more than 5% after the Chinese online retailer posted a revenue miss but said it will boost share buybacks by $25 billion. Meanwhile, shares of Snap (SNAP) tumbled more than 34% after the social media company's profit forecast for the current quarter came in worse than expected. Coming up on the earnings docket is Disney (DIS), which said Tuesday its ESPN unit will team up with Warner Bro