Dow Fights to New High

Leading the corporate news was General Electric (GE Quote), whose third-quarter earnings edged past Wall Street's targets. Guidance from the conglomerate was in line with estimates for the year.

GE made $5.06 billion, or 49 cents a share, from continuing operations for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from $4.59 billion, or 43 cents a share, last year. Sales rose 12% year over year to $40.86 billion. Still, shares of GE were lower by 24 cents, or 0.7%, to close at $35.98.

To view Farnoosh Torabi's video take on today's market, click here

Also weaker on the Dow were Home Depot(HD Quote), ending lower by 2.6%, Boeing(BA Quote), down 1.5%, and Procter & Gamble(PG Quote), off 0.5%.

Aside from GE, another company with earnings was J.B. Hunt Transport Services(JBHT Quote), which posted a third-quarter profit of $57.8 million, or 39 cents a share, up from $39.8 million, or 25 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $858.2 million, up more than 7% from a year ago. Analysts expected EPS of 37 cents on sales of $873.7 million, according to Thomson First Call.

J.B. Hunt lost 54 cents, or 2.4%, to finish at $22.11, but was off another 9% in the after-hours session. Others in the sector traded higher. Swift Transportation(SWFT Quote) rose 0.5%, and YRC Worldwide(YRCW Quote) tacked on 0.3%.

Earnings season started this week with reports from the likes of Alcoa (AA Quote) and Genentech (DNA Quote), and next week the pace of profit reports will quicken considerably.