S&P 500 Close to Record Close

The Down Jones Industrial Average reached the record close it set in 2007 a few weeks ago, and today might be the day the S&P 500 sets a record of its own. At 3:15 p.m. EDT, the index stands at 1,568, over 3 points above the previous record close of 1,565.15.

The government's final reading of GDP growth in Q4 2012 was revised upward for a second time today to 0.4%. Corporate profits also hit a new record in 2012, growing 3.7% from the year before. These data points gave investors enough confidence to push markets higher today.

United Technologies is leading the Dow today, rising 0.9%. The company completed the sale of an electric power systems business to a French company for $400 million. This is part of the divestitures U.S. regulators required when they approved the company's $18.4 billion deal to buy Goodrich.

IBM is up 0.7% after shooting back at Oracle's claims that its new server is faster than IBM's. IBM said the comparison wasn't with its latest equipment, and it can offer better uptime than Oracle. The server market is big business, and while IBM may be winning today, Oracle has a better offering than it had in the past, and it may be able to steam some share back from IBM over the next year.

Boeing is down 0.8% today as 787 Dreamliner delays continue. CEO Jim McNerney even went on the offensive, urging the FAA to put the 787 fleet back in service. For weeks now, Boeing has been hinting that the 787 will be back in service soon, but we only get more delays. The longer this drags out, the more costly it will be to the airline.

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Fool contributor Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of International Business Machines. and Oracle. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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