Global equity markets edged higher yesterday as a backdrop of solid corporate earnings buoyed risk appetite, but worries over the Middle East and Ukraine kept demand strong for safe-haven assets such as bonds.

Shares in Europe and emerging markets, and most of Wall Street also rose, with the benchmark S&P 500 setting a new intraday record for a second day as results continued to beat expectations.

Of the 149 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 68.5 per cent have beat expectations, slightly better than the past four quarters and five percentage points above the 20-year average of63 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

“The bottom line is investors have moved away, for now, from the big political stories and are refocused on earnings, which in general have been good,” said Rick Meckler, president of hedge fund LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey. “There’s just not a lot of bad news out there when it comes to corporate earnings.”

MSCI’s all-country world index rose 0.26 per cent, while the FTSEurofirst 300 rose 0.12 per cent to 1,375.43.

The bottom line is investors have moved away, for now, from the big political stories and are refocused on earnings

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 15.29 points, or 0.09 per cent, to 17,098.25. The S&P 500 gained 4.52 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 1,988.05 and the Nasdaq Composite added 18.628 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 4,474.644.

The prospect of more sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis and a downed Malaysian airliner kept risk aversion on the table in the bond market, where German 10-year yields nudged down to 1.148 per cent, just shy of record lows.

Benchmark 10-year US Treasuries were up 1/32 in price to yield 2.4601 per cent.

The euro was 0.03 per cent higher at $1.3468, while the dollar was 0.05 per cent higher against the Japanese yen at 101.51.

Brent crude for Septemberdelivery was up 66 cents at $107.99 a barrel. US crude for September delivery was 83 cents higher at $103.22 a barrel.