Wall Street stocks closed higher Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq narrowly edging to fresh records following some high-profile earnings victories by McDonald's, Caterpillar and others.

Of the three major indices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average scored the biggest gain of 0.5 percent to end the day at 21,613.56, but falling short of a record.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent to 2,477.10, just 3-1/2 points more than the prior all-time-high, while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended at 6,412.17, up a hair from Monday, when the index also finished at a record.