U.S. Stocks Keep Gains; S&P 500 Closes At New High

U.S. stocks held gains into Tuesday's closing bell as renewed hopes that the Federal Reserve will maintain its current easy-money policies helped lift the S&P 500 index to another record high close.

Hitting a monthly high, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 76.48 points, or 0.5% to close at 15,468.68. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 9.5 points or 0.2% to close at 3,929.57.

And the S&P 500 index climbed 10.07 points, or 0.58% to close at 1,754.73, with materials and consumer staples leading the gains.

The market owes today's euphoria to the government’s September nonfarm payroll report. Delayed by more than two weeks because of the government shutdown, it showed 148,000 jobs were added in September, below forecasts for a gain of 180,000.

In the wake of the disappointing jobs data, expectations for when the Fed will taper its bond-buying efforts shifted into 2014. Fed stimulus has helped the market rally this year because low interest rates help hold down corporate costs and fuels investment in the stock market.

"It essentially takes tapering off the table for October and likely December as well," wrote Sterne Agee chief economist Lindsey Piegza in a note published Tuesday. "As we have noted before Bernanke opened the door for tapering to be a 2014 event in the press conference following the September FOMC statement release when he said even if we begin to taper this year, each subsequent move will be data dependent. The Fed is still waiting to see noticeable improvement in hiring and it appears they are going to be waiting even longer."

U.S. Treasury yields suffered a sharp drop with the rate on the 10-year note falling to 2.51%.

The price of gold rose 1.85% to $1340.20 per ounce, while crude oil dropped 1.5% to $98.22 a barrel.

In corporate news:

Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hasting warned that momentum investors were responsible for a portion of the stock's huge gains this year. At $322.44, the shares  fell 9.2% despite posting better than expected financial results and a bullish fourth-quarter forecast.

Apple (AAPL) shares fell after the company at an event unveiled a new, lighter iPad, new software to operate its computers and new laptop and desktop computers.

Whirlpool (WHR) surged 11.6% to $146.19 after the appliance maker reported profits more than doubled in the third quarter and increased its forecast for the year.

Coach (COH) fell 7.5% to $50.10 afterreporting a drop in revenue during the previous quarter.