Solid earnings reports from several big companies helped drive US stock indexes to more record highs, the AP reports. McDonald's rose 4.8% Tuesday and Caterpillar climbed 5.9%. Both reported results that easily beat analysts' forecasts. Barnes & Noble soared 16.9% after an activist investor announced he had bought a stake in the struggling bookseller and urged it to pursue a sale. Banks posted big gains. Citigroup rose 2.9%. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 7 points, or 0.3%, to 2,477. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 100 points, or 0.5%, to 21,613. Technology stocks lagged the market. The Nasdaq inched up 1 point to 6,412. (More stock market stories.)