Britain and the European Union agreed to a severance deal, potentially wrapping up three years of uncertainties after Britons voted to leave the bloc. A parliamentary thumbs-up is still needed to seal the deal.
Positive statements from Beijing and Washington raised hopes that a phased agreement could be reached to resolve the market-rattling trade war between the world's two largest economies.
"Earnings are shorter-term, it's what happened last quarter and expectations for next quarter," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago. "Brexit and trade have a much longer runway. If we solve those, you're talking about multiple years of better growth."
Analysts currently see third-quarter S&P 500 earnings dropping by 2.9%, according to Refinitiv I/B/E/S, marking the first contraction since the earnings recession that ended mid-2016.
But of the 63 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so far, 82.5% have come in above estimates.
Morgan Stanley rounded out big bank earnings with better-than-expected third-quarter profits, driven by bond trading and M&A advisory strength, sending its shares up 1.9%.
Streaming bellwether Netflix Inc advanced 3.5% after the company reported a rebound in subscribers in the third quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.86 points, or 0.08%, to 27,023.84, the S&P 500 gained 8.24 points, or 0.28%, to 2,997.93 and the Nasdaq Composite added 27.75 points, or 0.34%, to 8,151.93.
Among other earnings news, shares of International Business Machines Corp were the biggest drag on the blue-chip Dow, sinking 5.6% after missing quarterly revenue estimates due to weakness in its global technology services unit.