Stock market indexes close at record as profits defy turmoil

About 80 per cent of companies reported results that were better than Wall Street analysts expected

For much of the year, the stock market has been on the ropes. Trade wars have erupted, the Federal Reserve raised rates, emerging market currencies collapsed, and major technology firms faced regulatory scrutiny — and, in the case of Amazon, presidential broadsides via messages on Twitter. Investors quailed at times, sending stocks down by as much as 10 per cent.
But the nine-year-old bull market never completely crumbled. By April, stocks had started a fresh climb. And after a 0.6 per cent rise on Friday, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closed at a record high of 2,874.69 points, reflecting