Wall Street edges higher after three-week run

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher on Monday, as a dearth of major market catalysts left little incentive for investors to make big bets after the Dow and S&P 500 advanced for a third straight week to record highs.

Earnings season begins to wind down this week, with 16 S&P 500 companies expected to report quarterly results, including retailers Wal-Mart and Macy's and network equipment maker Cisco Systems.

"We have had a nice run and last week we did see the markets largely go into neutral and take a bit of a pause," said Peter Kenny, chief market strategist at Clearpool Group in New York.

"Earnings season is coming to a close, there are no economic data releases for the next two days, we've gotten more or less the framing for the market."

McDonald's Corp rose 0.3 percent to $95.35 after its worldwide sales at restaurants open at least 13 months fell 0.5 percent in October but still beat expectations.

Gilead Sciences rose 1.8 percent to $108.38 after data from a midstage study showed Merck's attempt to shorten hepatitis C treatment by adding Gilead's Sovaldi to its own oral two-drug combination came nowhere near the desired efficacy. Merck shares were down 2 percent to $58.18.

Thomson Reuters data showed that of 448 companies in the S&P 500 to report earnings, 74.6 percent beat expectations, above the 63 percent beat rate since 1994 and 67 percent for the past four quarters. Earnings are expected to grow 10 percent over the year-ago period.

The Dow gained 7.3 percent while the S&P 500 was up 7.7 percent over the past three weeks, the best three-week performance for both indexes since October 2011.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 28.32 points, or 0.16 percent, to 17,602.25, the S&P 500 gained 5.48 points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,037.4 and the Nasdaq Composite added 19.36 points, or 0.42 percent, to 4,651.89.

Shares in cable providers fell after U.S. President Barack Obama said the Federal Communications Commission should reclassify broadband to regulate it more like a public utility. Comcast lost 2.9 percent to $53.58, Time Warner fell 3.1 percent to $139.16, and Cablevision shed 1.5 percent to $18.63.

Toll Brothers Inc, the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder, reported a 29 percent jump in quarterly revenue as housing demand strengthened. Its shares rose 3.6 percent to $33.38.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)