The US stock market is drifting near its record heights on Tuesday as the floodgates open for companies reporting how much profit they made during the summer.

The S&P 500 was up 0.1 per cent in afternoon trading and is sitting just 0.2 per cent below its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones was up 282 points, or 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite was edging down by 0.1 per cent.

The Australian sharemarket is set to retreat, with futures pointing to a loss of 36 points, or 0.4 per cent, at the open. The ASX added 0.7 per cent on Tuesday. The Australian dollar was fetching US64.90¢ at 5.23am AEDT.

General Motors rallied 16.3 per cent after reporting stronger quarterly results than analysts expected, while also raising its forecasts for some full-year financial targets

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