By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 edged higher Wednesday, as a jump in tech on falling U.S. bond yields and better-than-expected earnings from Microsoft and Google’s Alphabet offset weakness in energy.

Although the index rose 0.1%, it remained at 4,598.36, its record high. The Nasdaq rose 0.8% while the Dow fell 18% (63 points).

Technology saw a lift from the decline in Treasury yields. The 10-year yield dropped below 1.6% while Alphabet and Microsoft rose.

Third quarter earnings beat for Alphabet, NASDAQ: was due to strong digital advertising business performance. This was less susceptible to Apple (NASDAQ;) privacy changes. The share price increased by 6%.

Search [was]Apple’s ATT is the obvious beneficiary [App Tracking Transparency]”, Wedbush stated in a note that the most exposed are those who have been least affected by mobile measurement and tracking issues.”

Microsoft (NASDAQ: ) gave fourth quarter guidance which exceeded all expectations. Microsoft’s cloud business Azure continued its impressive growth, surpassing 50% during the third quarter. The shares rose by about 4%.

Twitter (NYSE: ) fell 10% following third quarter earnings reports that were below Wall Street expectations.

Tech’s upside offsets weakness in financials and energy cyclicals.

As Iran and the European Union reached an agreement to restart talks to bring about the renewal of 2015’s nuclear deal, energy prices plunged more than 1%.

The data showing that crude stocks in the United States increased more than anticipated pushed oil prices lower.

The crude inventories increased by 4.3 Million barrels in the week ending Oct. 24, which is well beyond analysts’ predictions of an increase of 1.9million barrels.

The energy sector, currently at 16%, has plenty of room for growth.

“I’m bullish on energy as underinvestment in energy projects should continue to support the supply and demand imbalance, substantially pushing crude prices higher,” Aptus Capital Advisors portfolio manager David Wagner told Investing.com in a recent interview.

“When you couple that with energy firms’ plans of returning capital shareholders, I just don’t see energy as being an underperformer,” Wagner added.

A 7% slump caused financials to plummet Capital One Financial (NYSE:), as the payments company’s results were better than expected, but there was concern about rising costs due to a rise in marketing spending.

Wall Street analysts remain positive on Capital One. They forecast that the Capital One will see increased marketing, which should lead to more growth.

“We see [higher marketing expenses]RBC described it as a positive indicator of future growth, and an indication that management is feeling more optimistic about the outlook. However, RBC noted in a note.

The fall in banking stocks had an impact on financials, with Treasury yields continuing to decline as the yield curve continued its flattening.

Boeing (NYSE:) dropped 1% in the third quarter after its results were not as expected. This was due to the fact that the rebound of 737 Max demand was countered by delays for production of the 787 Dreamliner jets. As the manufacturing process continues to fix manufacturing problems, Boeing fell 1%.

The economic outlook was positive with durable goods orders rising higher than expected in September despite smaller than expected decreases in orders for aircraft and autos.

“Declinations in civil aircraft and components of autos caused declines in headline durable goods orders, which were both smaller than what we had expected. Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in a note, “The 0.8% rise in core capital good orders — the largest since June – is very encouraging.”