While you were sleeping: IBM rally boosts Dow to record

Wall Street rose to fresh record highs, crashing through 23,000 in the Dow and bolstered by an 8.9% rally in IBM shares after the company reported quarterly earnings and an outlook that exceeded expectations.

IBM projected fourth-quarter revenue of $US22 billion to $US22.1 billion, which if achieved would represent as much as a 1.5% gain from the same period in 2016 and end a 22-quarter streak of shrinking sales.

"Management is focused in the right areas, but still have some work and must demonstrate this growth is sustainable," Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones, told Reuters.

At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 160.16 points, or 0.7%, to 23,157.60, its 51st record close this year and its fourth thousand-point jump.

The Nasdaq Composite Index rose less than a point to 6624.22 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.07% to 2561.26.

All three benchmarks touched all-time highs –  the Dow at 23,165.12, the S&P 500 at 2564.11 and the Nasdaq at 6635.52.

Bond prices fall
US Treasuries slid, sending yields on the 10-year note four basis points higher to 2.341%, the highest in a week, according to Bloomberg.

"We continue to see solid numbers above expectations, stability in terms of economic growth and global growth," Omar Aguilar, chief investment officer for equities at Charles Schwab Investment Management, told Reuters.

US economic activity increased in September through early October, with the pace of growth split between modest and moderate, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book, which is based on reports from 12 regional Fed banks.

Price pressures remained modest since the previous report, the Fed noted.

It wasn't all good news however. A Commerce Department report showed housing starts fell 4.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.127 million units in September, the lowest level in a year.

"Residential construction should be a hefty drag on third-quarter GDP growth," Michael Gregory, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, told Reuters. "Housing activity has shifted from leading the economic expansion to now just following it, at best."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.3%, the UK's FTSE 100 Index added 0.4%, as did France's CAC 40 Index and Germany's DAX Index.

(BusinessDesk)