Dow Jones industrial average closes at a record high
The Dow, which is made up of just 30 stocks, is an older and better-known barometer of the market than the S&P 500, but professional investors generally pay much closer attention to the S&P 500.
The Nasdaq is still lagging the other two main U.S. stock market indexes.
Sectors that investors tend to favor when they're nervous, including utilities, phone companies and makers of consumer staples, all fell as investors moved money out of lower-risk assets.
Aluminum maker Alcoa kicked off the second quarter earnings season on a positive note by reporting revenue and profit that beat Wall Street expectations.
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.
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.
Shares of Nintendo 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.