The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 index rose modestly on Wednesday, with the blue-chip Dow registering its eighth straight day of gains as investors gauged the latest round of corporate earnings, but a decline in Microsoft held the Nasdaq near the unchanged mark.

Bank stocks extended their rally, with the S&P 500 bank index advancing 1.70 percent, gaining for a third straight session and for the eighth time in the past nine.

Goldman Sachs rose 0.97 percent after reporting a three-year low in profit but CEO David Solomon made upbeat comments about signs of a recovery in investment banking. That echoed comments from other big banks on Tuesday.

"Right now we are getting through the raft of companies that are smart and years ago had moved over to more reliable fee based income and that is what people are kind of working through their heads," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh.

"Banks are giving you the tenor of what is happening in business."

Citizens Financial jumped 6.39 percent and M&T Bank rose 2.48 percent after both beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit. US Bancorp reversed earlier losses to climb 6.46 percent higher as the Minneapolis-based lender posted a 28 percent jump in quarterly net interest income.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.31 percent, to 35,061, the S&P 500 gained 0.24 percent, to 4,566 and the Nasdaq added 0.03 percent, to 14,358.

The Dow notched its eighth straight session of gains, its longest winning streak since September 2019.

But gains on the Nasdaq were held in check, weighed down by a 1.23 percent fall in Microsoft after a report that Apple was working on artificial intelligence (AI) offerings. Nvidia, was off 0.88 percent and Alphabet, down 1.40 percent, also lost ground.

Tesla was up 0.46 percent after the closing bell in choppy trading after the electric vehicle maker reported its gross margin fell in the second quarter from the previous three months. (Reuters)