Investors seems to have become numb to the ever-changing landscape in Washington as the bad news there is not infecting Wall Street at all as the Dow reached still another record high today to gain another 60 points.  Since Friday was also a record high, even a 6 point gain would have made a new record.  Boeing is being credited not to mention that July was a great month, the S&P up nearly 2 percent, the Dow 2.5 percent, the Nasdaq 3.4 percent.  Other than that, the only real news was a lot of profit-taking, especially in tech, which brought the Nasdaq down for the day 26 points.  Volume was a little above average at 6.3 billion shares. 

mon JULY 31, 2017 / 4:48 pM

Dow hits record high while tech retreats

Noel Randewich

DJ: 21,891.12  +60.81     NAS: 6,348.12  -26.55       S&P: 2,470.30  -1.80       7/31

(Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record closing high on Monday, helped by Boeing, while selling in Facebook, Alphabet and other technology companies checked the S&P 500 and pulled the Nasdaq lower.  The S&P 500 information technology .SPLRCT dipped 0.53 percent, with Facebook (FB.O) falling 1.86 percent and Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Google's parent company, down 1.34 percent.   "The bull market is sort of broadening out and people are taking a few profits off the table on some of these stocks that have done exceedingly well," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.

Boeing (BA.N) rose 0.49 percent and hit a record high of $242.46 after JPMorgan raised its price target on the world's biggest plane maker to $280 per share. 

The market reacted little to news that U.S. President Donald Trump's communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, was leaving the job after little over a week, the latest staff upheaval to hit the Republican's six-month-old presidency.

In July, the S&P 500 rose 1.9 percent, the Dow added 2.5 percent and the Nasdaq gained 3.4 percent.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O), which is expected to report quarterly results after the market close on Tuesday, dipped 0.51 percent.  Investors have been counting on earnings to support high valuations for equities.

S&P 500 earnings are expected on average to have grown 10.8 percent in the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"The market in the last week has become jittery," said Dennis Dick, head of markets structure, proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. "Money managers are looking to take profits and for any excuse to do so."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.28 percent to end at 21,891.12 points and the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.07 percent to 2,470.3. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.42 percent to 6,348.12.

Just four of the 11 major S&P sectors rose, with the financial index's .SPSY 0.62 percent rise leading the gainers.

Tesla (TSLA.O) dropped 3.46 percent after Chief Executive Elon Musk warned that the electric carmaker would face "manufacturing hell" as it ramps up production of its new mass-market Model 3 sedan.

Snap (SNAP.N) fell 1.01 percent as some investors were allowed for the first time to sell shares following the Snapchat owner's March initial public offer.  Discovery Communications (DISCA.O) dropped 8.21 percent after it said it would buy Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI.O) for $11.9 billion.  Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) rose 5.85 percent to a record high after a source said Japan's SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) was considering an acquisition offer.

About 6.3 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, above the 6.0-billion average over the last 20 sessions.