In October, all three U.S. benchmarks posted their best percentage performance since February. Although, impact of hurricanes Harvey and Irma cast a pall over the month, benchmarks managed to maintain their winning streak. Strong third-quarter earnings and favourable economic data contributed to gains in October.

Banking on such positive vibes, the addition of mutual funds to your portfolio having strong exposure to U.S. companies could prove lucrative. Now, let us take a look at some of the encouraging factors that contributed to gains in these mutual funds in October.

Benchmarks Post Record Gains

For the month, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq increased 4.3%, 2.2% and 3.6%, respectively. While, the Dow and the S&P 500 posted their seventh straight month of gains, the Nasdaq registered its fourth straight monthly gain in 2017. Moreover, this also happens to be the longest streak of gains for the Dow since April 2012 and the S&P 500 since May 2013.

Also, major tech behemoths like Microsoft Corp. (MSFT – Free Report) , Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL – Free Report) , Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN – Free Report) , Intel Corp. (INTC – Free Report) , IBM (IBM – Free Report) and Netflix (NFLX – Free Report) have reported stunning quarterly earnings, which boosted the performance of the S&P 500 and tech-based index, Nasdaq.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed a $4.1 trillion budget bill for 2018. Moreover, the House of Representatives cleared the budget blueprint with the majority of Republicans voting in favor of the move. Also, the release of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes clearly hinted at a rate hike in December. President Trump chose not to certify Iran’s compliance with a nuclear deal struck in 2015.

Economic Data In Focus

Economic data released during October was largely encouraging. The U.S. economy expanded at a solid 3% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the third quarter of 2017, according to Commerce Department data. The expansion came on the back of 3.1% growth in the second quarter. It also marks two consecutive quarters of 3% or more growth since mid-2014.