S&P 500, Dow close at new highs as Facebook starts heavy earnings week

 The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 64.13 points, or 0.18%, to 35,741.15

The Dow Industrials and S&P 500 closed at record highs on Monday, as earnings season kicked in to high gear in one of the heaviest reporting weeks of the quarter with bellwethers in multiple sectors poised to announce results.

While the Dow and S&P hit new highs, the Nasdaq outperformed on the day, buoyed by gains in Tesla and PayPal, and the tech-heavy index stands less than 1% away from its Sept. 7 closing record.

Tesla Inc jumped 12.66% to its own new high of $1,045.02 and breached $1 trillion in market capitalization, after car rental firm Hertz placed an order for 100,000 Tesla cars, while Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the stock to $1,200 from $900 per share.

"Tesla, there is a lot of the chatter out there today and Hertz placing a big order has created some excitement," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

Tesla, which has risen in nine of the past ten sessions and is up more than 28% for the month, provided the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Also helping to lift the two indexes was PayPal Inc, which gained 2.70% after the payments company scrapped plans to buy the digital pinboard site Pinterest Inc for as much as $45 billion.

Shares of Pinterest slumped 12.71%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 64.13 points, or 0.18%, to 35,741.15, the S&P 500 gained 21.58 points, or 0.47%, to 4,566.48 and the Nasdaq Composite added 136.51 points, or 0.9%, to 15,226.71.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday held out hope for an agreement on his major spending plans before attending a climate summit in Scotland, while the White House said Democratic negotiators were closing in on a deal.