Stocks rose Wednesday, with the S&P 500 Index ticking closer to the 5,000 level for the first time ever, as investors responded to the latest batch of earnings mid-week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rallied more than 150 points, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced nearly 1%.

Here's how the market settled on Wednesday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +0.82% or +40.83 points to 4,995.06

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.40% or +156.00 points to 38,677.36

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): +0.95% or +147.65 points to 15,756.64

Making Headlines: Disney's (DIS  ) ESPN, Fox (FOXA  ) (FOX  ) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD  ) announced late Tuesday the three are launching a joint sports streaming service later this year, with each company owning a one-third stake. While the name or subscription price have yet to be announced, the companies said customers will have the option to subscribe to the new app or bundle with other sister streaming products like Max, Hulu and Disney+.

"The launch of this new streaming sports service is a significant moment for Disney and ESPN, a major win for sports fans, and an important step forward for the media business," Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. "This means the full suite of ESPN channels will be available to consumers alongside the sports programming of other industry leaders as part of a differentiated sports-centric service."

On the Earnings Front: Roblox (RBLX  ) shares rose on Wednesday after the video game developer reported strong earnings and issued better-than-expected full year guidance. For 2024, the company expects bookings between $4.1 billion and $4.28 billion. "We enter 2024 with even more conviction of being able to achieve our long-term goal of attracting over 1 billion daily active users with optimism and civility," CEO David Baszucki said in a press release.

Snap (SNAP  ) reported disappointing fourth-quarter earnings and issued lackluster forward guidance after market close on Tuesday, attributing its results in-part to the war in the Middle East.

"While we are encouraged by the progress we are making with our ad platform and the improved results we are delivering for many of our advertising partners, we estimate that the onset of the conflict in the Middle East was a headwind to year-over-year growth of approximately 2 percentage points in Q4," Snap said in a letter to investors.

CVS Health (CVS  ) shares rose Wednesday after the drug store chain reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, but cut its full-year profit outlook due to higher medical costs. The company now forecasts for adjusted earnings of at least $8.30 for 2024, down from its previous guidance of about $8.50 per share, as well as unadjusted earnings of at least $7.06 per share from $7.26 per share.

For Thursday: investors will trade amid the release of more corporate earnings which include Disney, Arm Holdings (ARM  ), PayPal (PYPL  ) and Kenvue (KVUE  ).