Dow Continues Historic Run

As for commodities, most were stronger following the Energy Department's weekly petroleum inventory report. Crude stocks rose by 2.4 million barrels last week, and gasoline inventories increased by 300,000 barrels. Distillate stocks, however, fell by 1.6 million barrels.

Oil tacked on 27 cents to close at $57.86 a barrel, but natural gas dropped 37 cents to $5.78 per million British thermal units. Gold rose $3.80 at $580.30 an ounce, while silver tacked on 5 cents to $11.38 an ounce.

Before the bell, the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit reached a record $69.9 billion in August, rising $1.9 billion from the revised July reading. Exports for the month totaled $122.4 billion, and imports were $192.3 billion. August exports were $2.7 billion more than July, and the value of imports rose by $4.6 billion.

"We can't be sure why the consensus was so low, but we guess it reflects the drop in oil prices," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist with High Frequency Economics. "It takes a month or so for lower oil prices to hit the trade data, and the really big drop did not come until September."

Overseas, equities were mostly higher. London's FTSE added 0.8% to 6121, and Frankfurt's Xetra DAX was up 0.7% to 6160. Tokyo's Nikkei slipped 0.2% to 16,369, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng tacked on 0.1% to 17,873.

On Friday, General Electric(GE Quote) is expected to post third-quarter earnings of 49 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call. Shares ended the session up 5 cents, or 0.1%, to $36.22.

In addition, reports on import prices and retail sales for September are due, as well as the University of Michigan's preliminary read on consumer sentiment for October.