While you were sleeping: Dow tops 23,000 for first time

Wall Street was mixed, with the Dow rising above 23,000 for the first time as shares of UnitedHealth Group and Johnson & Johnson rose after they reported results that beat expectations and upgraded their respective earnings outlooks.

At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 40.48 points, or 0.2%, to 22,997.44. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index eased less than a point at 6623.66 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.07% to 2559.36.

Earlier in the day the Dow rose to a record high of 23,002.20.

"There was some good earnings, real good economic data in spite of the hurricanes," Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York, told Reuters.

"We're not seeing a market that's galloping along here. The market from a technical perspective is tired. What you're seeing is some hesitancy but not any major declines."

The Dow rose as UnitedHealth Group and Johnson & Johnson, up 5.5% and 2.7% respectively, outweighed declines in Goldman Sachs and Visa, down 2.5% and 0.7% respectively.

While Goldman Sachs reported earnings that exceeded expectations, investors weren't impressed. After two quarters in a row severely missing Wall Street's bond trading estimates, Goldman's 26% decline did not look so bad, said Oppenheimer analyst Chris Kotowski, Reuters reported.

"While we did not see a sharp rebound in (bond) trading, one can, at a minimum, say that this quarter Goldman looked pretty much like everyone else."

'Hawkish' Fed candidates
Meanwhile, US Treasuries fell while the greenback rose amid bets the successor of Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen, whose term ends in February, might be more hawkish.

Stanford University economist John Taylor, one of five candidates, made a favourable impression on President Donald Trump after an hour-long interview at the White House last week, Bloomberg reported, citing several people familiar with the matter.

Mr Trump gushed about Mr Taylor after his interview, one of the people said, according to Bloomberg. However, the president told the Wall Street Journal in July that he would "like to see rates stay low," and Mr Taylor is the namesake of a well-known monetary policy rule that would generally advocate higher interest rates, Bloomberg reported.

Mr Trump plans to interview Ms Yellen on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended down 0.3%. France's CAC 40 Index slipped 0.03%, Germany's DAX Index eased 0.07% and the UK's FTSE 100 Index fell 0.14%.

Danone shares rose 2% after the French food company posted quarterly sales that exceeded expectations, bolstered by demand for its baby milk formula in China.

"The increase in like-for-like sales has been underpinned by the allocation of additional resources to serve rising demand in Specialised Nutrition, especially in China," Emmanuel Faber, chief executive officer, said in a statement. "The integration of WhiteWave is on track and starting to deliver results."

To be sure, "strong headwinds remain in Brazil which continue to impact EDP International negatively," Mr Faber noted.

(BusinessDesk)