New York - Wall Street gained on Wednesday, and the S&P 500 and Dow industrials set fresh records, as Microsoft’s strong results boosted indexes and gave the latest sign that U.S. corporate earnings season may be less dour than feared.

The Dow Jones industrial average

< .DJI> rose 36.09 points, or 0.19 percent, to 18,595.1, the S&P 500 < .SPX> gained 9.24 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,173.02 and the Nasdaq Composite < .IXIC>

added 53.56 points, or 1.06 percent, to 5,089.93.