Dow Record Bid Falls Short

"Blue chips are getting most of the attention, driving the S&P 500 and Dow to new bull-market high ground," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist with Cantor Fitzgerald. "This rally is more about putting excess cash to work rather than expectations for growth."

Advances of 2% or more in McDonald'sMCD, General MotorsGM, AltriaMO and IntelINTC helped keep the Dow positive.

On the Nasdaq, Marvell TechnologyMRVL was higher by 4.5%, but couldn't save the Philadelphia Semiconductor Sector index, which fell 0.7%.

As for the day's economic reports, the Commerce Department said durable-goods orders unexpectedly fell 0.5% in August, compared with economists' expectations of a 0.4% rise. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders fell 2%. July's decline of 2.4% was revised to a drop of 2.7%.

Separately, the Commerce Department said new-home sales rose 4.1% to 1.05 million annualized units in August, just above the consensus. However, July new-home sales were revised down by 63,000 to just 1.01 million units. Both May and June sales data were revised lower, as well.

"It's a surprise the market is acting as well as it is," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment officer with Oaktree Asset Management. "We've been able to shake the economic data off, and we continue to hope we're in store for a soft landing. There is certainly a lot of interest in stocks, but I'm concerned about the bond market and forthcoming earnings reports."

To view Gregg Greenberg's video take on today's market, click here.