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The US S&P 500 hit a new record on Wednesday after Netflix's results added fuel to US President Donald Trump's “America First” policy announcements.
A blue-chip US large-cap index stocks it rose as much as 0.8 percent by midday in New York, pushing the previous intraday high in early December, hitting 6,100 for the first time.
The S&P 500 last week posted its best five-session gain since Trump's election.
Netflix, whose fourth-quarter earnings were published last night, gained 10.4 percent, pulling other technology stocks higher. Oracle jumped 7.2 percent and Microsoft added 4 percent after joining other tech titans, including OpenAI, in to announce plans for a new US intelligence project.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.5 percent amid its impressive intraday range in mid-December.
Wednesday's gains come as Trump has used his first three days in office to threaten new tariffs against US allies while promising to end America's “decline”.
Anticipated cuts in corporate tax rates and the lifting of financial controls have added to investors' optimism in the week after some of the country's biggest banks reported a sharper recovery in sales and trading.
Europe's Stoxx 600 hit another record high on Wednesday as fears over US prices eased and investors bought lower European stocks following strong corporate earnings.
Europe's broad-based index rose as much as 0.9 percent to a record high of 530.55, boosted by gains in some of Europe's biggest companies such as Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk and Germany's Adidas.
It closed up 0.4 percent after shedding some of its gains.
Frankfurt's Dax added 1 percent – after reaching a new high – led by Adidas' 6 percent gain after its strong full-year results.
Luca Paolini, strategist at Pictet Asset Management, said that “the risk environment (was) raising all boats, especially the weakest ones”, helped by other factors including concerns about US tariffs that are easing a bit.
Despite repeated threats, Trump has yet to impose new tariffs on US imports from the bloc.
“There is relief in the view that Trump is softer than the market thought,” said Emmanuel Cau, an analyst at Barclays.
“The (European) market is no longer afraid of Trump as he shows that he is trying to negotiate,” he said.
London's FTSE 100 also set a new intraday record before falling, closing flat.
The rise came after a Bank of America survey of European fund managers this week showed that investors have raised their stakes in European equities as fears grew due to higher valuations on Wall Street.
Only 19 percent of fund managers were “overweight” US stocks in January, down from a record 36 percent the previous month. The shift was the biggest shift from US stocks to Eurozone stocks in nearly a decade, the bank said.
Trump also said on Tuesday that his administration was discussing imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports as early as next month. He announced on Monday that he will drop the prices of 25 percent against Mexico and Canada as early as February 1.