US stocks bobbed and weaved into new record territory yesterday as the beginning of the second-quarter earnings reporting season injected uncertainty into the stock market.

After trading in a narrow range for much of the session, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 52.24 points, or by 0.5 per cent, at 11,187.36. The blue-chip index topped its previous record of 11,139.24, set last Friday.

The Standard and Poor's 500 rose 7.74 to 1,395.86, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 6.19 to 2,742.97.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 4-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,696 down, 1,306 up and 559 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 776.83 million shares.