Mumbai, July 16 -- U.S. stocks ticked higher Wednesday following strong profit reports from BlackRock and other big companies. The tentative gains came as oil prices swung to their highest levels in a month because of the war with Iran.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% after flipping between modest gains and losses through the day and it's back within 0.5% of its all-time high set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 150 points (0.3%) and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.6%.

BlackRock led the market with a rise of 6.6% after the company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Bank of New York Mellon rose 5.1% after adding to the spate of strong earnings reports from many of the biggest U.S. b...