U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday, the first trading day of August, as the Dow Jones industrial average approached another milestone. The 30-stock index rose 72.80 points close at a record of 21,963.92, with 3M and Goldman Sachs contributing the most gains. The Dow also came within 10 points of reaching 22,000. The S&P 500 advanced 0.24 percent to end at 2,476.35, with financials leading advancers. The Nasdaq composite also climbed 0.23 percent to end at 6,362.94.

Major U.S. Indexes

Dow futures briefly signaled the index would break above 22,000 for the first time. The Dow is coming off its strongest monthly performance since February, having risen 2.54 percent. Shares of Boeing contributed the lions share of the gains, adding more than 300 points to the index. "This has been mostly earnings driven and the earnings have been terrific," said Crit Thomas, global market strategist at Touchstone Investments. "There's really no other way to describe it." The Dow, along with the Nasdaq and the S&P, notched record highs in July as investors shrugged off news of the turmoil in Washington as well as geopolitical tensions. The White House is once again on Wall Street's radar after the recently appointed communications director Anthony Scaramucci was fired on Monday. He was in the position for 10 days. "The market wanted to go up and did, posting five new closing highs in July, as it continued to watch the Floor, rather than the man or groups in Washington," Howard Silverblatt, senior Index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Earnings season is well under way with most companies topping expectations. Seventy-two percent of the S&P 500 companies that had reported as of Tuesday morning had beaten bottom-line estimates, while 69 percent had beaten on the top line, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York. Brendan McDermid | Reuters