Stocks started the week at new record highs again as financials and energy helped support overall. The Dow 30 was higher by 112, the S&P 500 was up by 13, and the Nasdaq 100 added another 27. Tomorrow traders will have existing home sales number to look at along with FOMC minutes due out in the afternoon.

Home Depot (HD  ) shot up today by 1.41% when the company announced earnings and revenue that beat the streets expectations. The home improvement, retail store chain also pleased investors with a higher dividend and confirmed a $15 billion share buyback. The only blemish was the full-year earnings metric which was a bit short of Wall Street expectations. Shares are now up over 7% on the year, trading at new highs.

Wal-Mart (WMT  ) also enjoyed a nice day today gaining 3.00% as the company announced earnings that were better than Wall Street's profit expectations. On a special note, analysts noted that the same-store sales numbers have now grown for the last 10 quarters straight. Revenue was the only blemish on the report but investors chose to discount the news as Wal-Mart has been investing heavily in its stores and e-commerce operations, hurting its profitability.

HSBC Holdings (HSBC  ) shares suffered a 5.33% decline today after the company reported that profits at fell 62%. HSBC's fourth quarter loss was more than $4 billion which were much worse than analysts expected. The loss was attributed to "write-downs from the bank's restructuring program." HSBC also announced a new $1 billion share buy back, as it returns cash to shareholders from the sale of its Brazilian business.