By CHRIS DIETERICH

NEW YORK—The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged closer to an all-time closing high Monday, as investors brushed off steep losses in China's equity markets and pushed major benchmarks higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged closer to an all-time high Monday, as stocks in the U.S. shrugged off broad losses in China's equity markets and turned positive in afternoon trading. Jonathan Cheng reports on The News Hub.

The Dow rose 38.16 points, or 0.3%, to 14127.82, ending with its second-highest finish ever. The blue chips now sit just 37 points below the record.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock gained 7.00 points, or 0.5%, to 1525.20 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 12.29 points, or 0.4%, to 3182.03.

Utility, consumer discretionary and financial stocks the market higher. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) were the Dow's best performers. Only energy and industrial sectors lost ground.

Hess (HES) rose after the company said it plans to shed oil-business assets to focus on exploration and production. It also unveiled a share-buyback program and more than doubled its quarterly dividend.

United Technologies (UTX) fell after the company's Pratt Whitney unit disclosed it had broken up an alleged fraudulent-testing scheme by another unit in the company, affecting tens of thousands of engine parts used in various engines made by Pratt Whitney's Canadian operations.

The trajectories of technology giants Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) continued to diverge. Apple slumped to touch its lowest price since January 2012. Google, meanwhile, rose to another all-time high.

Major indexes started lower following a rout in China's equity markets. The Shanghai Composite slumped 3.7%, the biggest one-day percentage slide since August 2011. Losses came after Chinese government measures to curb rising home prices amid signs that the market is heating up. The new rules include higher down payments and mortgage rates on second homes in some cities.

But losses didn't last. Earlier Monday, Janet Yellen, vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, made clear in a speech that she supports keeping economic stimulus efforts in place for the foreseeable future. Last month, concerns that the central bank might seek to end its efforts sooner than expected helped trigger a pause in the market.

"I don't think it's necessarily anything new, but basically [the speech] is reiterating that the Fed is going to keep rates as low as needed for as long as needed," said Brian Gendreau, market strategist for El Segundo, Calif.'s Cetera Financial Group, which manages $20 billion in assets.

While worries about a budget impasse in Washington lingered, some investors said they were encouraged by the way investors retained their composure last week as the deadline for automatic budget cuts approached.

Paul Vigna reports on the Dow edging closer to a record high. Meanwhile, European stocks have been impacted by political wrangling.

"The spending cuts have come and gone, and it seems like it wasn't the end of the world as some people thought," said Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "Overall we're encouraged that the spending cuts have come and gone."

European stocks edged lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 fell less than 0.1%. Italy's FTSE MIB index shed 0.9%, ahead of a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday. Further discussion of the country's political stalemate expected to feature high on the agenda. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average added 0.4%.

Front-month April crude-oil futures declined 0.6% to $90.12 a barrel. March gold futures ticked up less than 0.1% to settle at $1,572.10 a troy ounce. The dollar edged higher against the euro but slipped against the yen. Yields on benchmark Treasury bonds rose to 1.878% as prices fell.

In deal news, Ferro (FOE) rose after plastics company A. Schulman (SHLM) said it has proposed to buy Ferro in a deal valued at about $855 million.

Markets Hub host Paul Vigna shares three stocks investors are likely to watch in the markets today. Photo: Getty Images.

The U.S.-listed shares of Canada's Aurizon Mines (AZK) rallied after the gold miner agreed to be acquired by Hecla Mining (HL) in a cash and stock deal valued at about $773.7 million.

Boyd Gaming (BYD) soared after agreeing to sell its unfinished Echelon project on the Las Vegas Strip to Malaysian gambling company Genting for $350 million in cash.

Stratasys (SSYS) surged after the three-dimensional printing company reported quarterly earnings and revenue that were above forecasts and provided an upbeat sales outlook for 2013.

Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) declined after Chairman Warren Buffett said Friday that the company had a "subpar" 2012, as the 14.4% increase in book value during the year fell short of the 16% return of the S&P 500.

Celgene (CELG) fell after the pharmaceutical company said a smaller proportion of patients reported significant improvement from the company's psoriasis drug in a late-stage trial.

Write to Chris Dieterich at chris.dieterich@dowjones.com