By Stan CheoNew York — The US stock market rose towards a record on Tuesday as big companies kept piling up profits and oil prices eased.The S&P 500 added 0.6% and is on track to top its all-time closing high set earlier in the summer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 658 points, or 1.2%, from its own record set the day before, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.1% higher before midday.Despite worries about high inflation, the war in Iran and a possible bubble in stock prices because of euphoria around the boom in AI technology, Wall Street is nearing its latest apex because profits are booming for companies. That is key because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate earnings over the long term.Palantir Technologies helped lead the way and jumped 19.8% after CEO Alex Karp said its overall revenue leaped 93% in the spring from a year earlier in what he called an “otherworldly” quarter. Besides reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, the AI company also raised its revenue forecast for the full year of 2026.Caterpillar rallied 10.5% after the heavy-equipment maker likewise reported stronger profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. It was the first time Caterpillar made more than $20bn in sales and revenue in a quarter, and CEO Joe Creed said it is seeing strong order rates and a growing backlog across its main businesses.Read: Oil falls as Bessent raises hopes for a diplomatic resolution to Iran conflictThey are the latest companies to deliver even better profits for the spring than investors expected, after strong results from Amazon, Microsoft and others. Coming into this week, companies in the S&P 500 index were on track to deliver growth in earnings per share for the spring of nearly 50% from a year earlier, according to FactSet.That would be the strongest growth since the historic numbers of the spring of 2021, when the economy was roaring out of the Covid-19 pandemic.Also helping stocks on Tuesday was another drop for oil prices.Brent crude, the international standard, sank 4.2% to $80.29 per barrel as hope once again takes over from fear in the oil market. It had swung sharply between $72 and $102 through July on uncertainty about when the war with Iran would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again to deliver crude around the world. It has jerked up and down many times as uncertainty built, receded and then built again.The latest drop in oil prices helped to pull down yields in the bond market, which relaxes pressure on the overall economy and on prices for stocks and other investments.The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.63% from 4.70% Monday and from 4.75% at the end of last week. That is a notable move for the bond market, but it remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran.Stocks of computer chip companies also held firmer on Wall Street, where gains of 2.4% for Nvidia, 6.9% for Micron Technology and 4.7% for Broadcom were some of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.