Stocks soared again yesterday, and even bigger than the day before. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, once again, led the way with 2.59%. The small-cap Russell 2000 was next with 1.85%, followed by the S&P 500 with 1.79%.

And this time, four of the major indexes closed at record levels. The Dow, the S&P 500, and the mid-cap S&P 400 hit new all-time highs and closes in the process. And the Russell 2000 also made a new all-time high close.

Once again, strong earnings continue to propel stocks higher. And it should come as no surprise given that stocks typically go up during earnings season. And earnings season, so far, has been stellar.

Before the open, Caterpillar posted a positive EPS surprise of 30.72%, and a positive sales surprise of 6.37%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 73.1% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 24%. They posted record revenue of $20.5B (first time above $20B in a quarter), had a record backlog of $72.1B, and raised their full-year sales outlook, due in part to the AI boom/data center buildout. They were up 5.60% in the regular session after earnings.

After the close we heard from SpaceX ? their first earnings release since going public on June 12. And they posted a positive EPS surprise of 65.38%, and a positive sales surprise of 16.31%. Quarterly sales growth was up 92%. (About a quarter of that came from their AI business.) And earnings improved, coming in at loss of -9 cents (or -$541 million) vs. last year at this time of -23 cents (or -$1 billion). They were up 9.43% in the regular session before earnings, and were trading lower by roughly -7% in after-hours trade following earnings.

We also heard from Arista Networks after the close as well, and they posted a positive EPS surprise of 14.61%, and a positive sales surprise of 7.14%, for a quarterly EPS growth rate of 39.7%, and a sales growth of 38.2%. They raised their full-year rev guidance, which would show 28% growth vs. 25%. They also raised their quarterly rev guidance to $3.3B from $2.95B, and EPS guidance to a midpoint of $1.07 vs. $0.92. They too cited AI demand as a major contributing factor, with the CEO saying "AI is a significant growth vector." They were up 3.04% in the regular session, and were up another 12.5% in after-hours.

Today we'll hear from another 548 companies on deck to report, including Eli Lilly before the open, and Western Digital and Sandisk after the close, to name a few.

The market also cheered the news that indirect talks with the U.S. and Iran continue, in an effort to 're-open' the Strait of Hormuz. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a deal may be reached with Iran "today or tomorrow" (meaning yesterday or today). We shall see.

In other news, yesterday's Factory Orders report was down -0.3% m/m vs. last month's -11% and views for 0.4%.

The International Trade in Goods and Services report came in at -$73.3B vs. last month's -$77.6B and estimates for -$73.0B.

And the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report (or JOLTS for short) came in at 7.359M job openings vs. last month's 7.537M and the consensus for 7.350M.

But the jobs report everybody is really waiting for is Friday's always important Employment Situation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In the meantime, there's plenty of other earnings, economic reports, and headlines to get thru first.

See you tomorrow,