Dow breaks above 20,000

The Dow Jones industrial average broke above 20,000 for the first time shortly after the open, rising more than 100 points as Boeing and Caterpillar contributed the most gains.

"Traders have been waiting for more details on infrastructure spending and now they have it in a very clear format," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets. "There is nothing bigger than this. A break of 20,000 for the Dow stimulates fresh capital which has been waiting for this moment to happen"

The S&P 500 advanced 0.4 percent to a new all-time high, with information technology and financials leading advancers. The Nasdaq composite outperformed, rising 0.7 percent, also notching a record high.

On Tuesday, President Trump signed executive orders that will make it easier for TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline and for Energy Transfer Partners to build the final uncompleted portion of the Dakota Access pipeline. The orders helped lift the materials sector to a 2.5 percent gain Tuesday.

"There's no question that some of the executive orders he's signed are good, especially deregulations," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial. "Anything else should be seen as a question mark. We don't know what a wall on the Mexican border would mean for Nafta."

Investors also paid attention to a series of corporate quarterly results, as Dow components Boeing posted earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations. United Tchnologies, another Dow component, posted profit and sales that largely met analyst expectations.