Bulls On Wall Street; Stocks Soar To Record High

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Fiscal optimism powered a bullish day on the stock exchanges Tuesday as the Dow Jones soared to a record closing, finishing the day at 18,347.67 -- 35 points higher than the previous high mark set in May 2015.

The NASDAQ, meanwhile, saw a 34.18 point increase to 5,022.82 with the Standard & Poor 500 rose to 2,152.14

PROFIT PICTURE: Aluminum maker Alcoa kicked off the second quarter earnings season on a positive note by reporting revenue and earnings that beat Wall Street expectations. The stock jumped 48 cents, or 5 percent, to $10.62.

SEAGATE SURGE: Seagate Technology surged $5.18, or 22 percent, to $29.27 after forecasting strong sales. It also announced it will cut 6,500 jobs, about 14 percent of its total.

JAPAN JUMPS: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index jumped 2.5 percent, a day after soaring 4 percent. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised new government spending to help jolt Asia's second-biggest economy back to life now that his Liberal Democratic Party has won in parliamentary elections. Investors are betting he'll keep flooding the market with money by expanding bond purchases.

THE QUOTE: "The combination of very low interest rates and modest earnings going forward and supportive central banks and now some indication of fiscal stimulus in Japan — the third largest economy — this is a mix that stock investors can support," said James Russell, portfolio manager at investment firm Bayle & Gaynor. "Investors are heartened."

ENERGY BOOST: Oil drillers and other energy companies are rising on a jump in oil prices. Southwestern Energy jumped 10 percent, adding $1.29 to $14.19.

ASIAN GAINS: South Korea's Kospi edged up 0.1 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.7 percent. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3 percent.

EUROPEAN GAINS: France's CAC 40 rose 1.6 percent and Germany's DAX added 1.3 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was flat.

POKEMON POWER: Shares of Nintendo Co. jumped 12.7 percent in Tokyo, fueled by the craze for "Pokemon Go," a smartphone game that's become the top grossing app in the iPhone store less than a week after its release in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude added $2.04 to close at $46.80 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a standard for international oil prices, rose $2.22 to $48.47 a barrel in London. In other energy trading in New York, wholesale gasoline rose 5 cents to $1.43 a gallon, heating oil rose 5 cents to $1.46 a gallon and natural gas rose 3 cents to $2.73 per 1,000 cubic feet.

BONDS AND CURRENCIES: U.S. government bonds fell, pushing yields higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.52 percent from 1.43 percent on Monday. The dollar rose to 104.93 yen from 102.77 yen. The euro rose to $1.1068 from $1.1058.

METALS: The price of gold fell $21.30 to $1,335.30, silver fell 13 cents to $20.17 an ounce and copper rose 7 cents to $2.21 a pound.