Most regional stocks had comparatively small gains or losses on the day after the Dow hit a new high.

Of the region’s largest public companies, Waddell & Reed rose 0.8 percent, H&R Block was up 0.6 percent and Garmin gained 0.1 percent.

Sprint, the region’s largest company, closed unchanged.

Among the losers were Cerner, down 1.5 percent, Kansas City Southern, down 1.2 percent, and YRC Worldwide, down 3.4 percent.

Meanwhile the Dow Jones industrial average meandered higher on Wednesday.

The Dow edged up 42.47 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 14,296.24. An encouraging job-market report helped nudge the stock market up and pushed bond prices lower.

On Tuesday, the Dow blew past the previous all-time high it hit more than five years ago. The index of 30 big corporations has more than doubled since hitting a low during the financial crisis in March 2009.

The question now is, how much longer can it keep climbing?

In the past, stock indexes have often drifted lower in the months after breaking through previous record highs. David Brown, director of Sabrient Systems, an investment research firm, sees plenty of reasons for the market to keep climbing, however. People are putting their cash into the stock market again. And the alternatives, like bonds, are hardly appealing.

“There is literally nowhere else to go,” Brown said. “Do you really want to make 1.9 percent on a 10-year Treasury? You won’t make any money doing that.”

In other trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.67 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,541.46. The Nasdaq slipped 1.77, less than 0.1 percent, to 3,222.36. The BATS 1000 rose 23.29 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 17,401.27.

Microsoft led a decline in tech stocks, losing 26 cents to $28.09. European regulators fined the company for breaking an antitrust agreement requiring the software giant to offer computer users a choice of Internet browsers, instead of just Internet Explorer.

Companies added 198,000 U.S. workers to their payrolls in February, according to payment processor ADP. The firm also said employers added 23,000 more jobs in January than first reported.

The ADP survey suggests that government spending cuts have yet to deter employers from hiring. Investors look to the ADP survey as a preview to the closely watched Labor Department report, which comes out Friday. Economists expect the government to say employers added 152,000 jobs in February, lowering the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent from 7.9 percent.

As traders anticipated better news about the job market, bond prices fell and the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.93 percent from 1.90 percent late Tuesday.

Regional stocks

Capitol Federal Financial rose 11 cents, or 0.92%, to close at $12.03.

Cerner Corp. fell $1.37, or 1.48%, to close at $90.91.

Commerce Bancshares Inc. rose 14 cents, or 0.37%, to close at $38.12.

Compass Minerals rose 34 cents, or 0.45%, to close at $76.48.

DST Systems Inc. fell 2 cents, or 0.03%, to close at $69.64.

Ferrellgas Partners L.P. fell $1.12, or 5.32%, to close at $19.93.

Garmin Ltd. rose 4 cents, or 0.11%, to close at $35.30.

Great Plains Energy rose 3 cents, or 0.13%, to close at $22.41.

H&R Block Inc. rose 14 cents, or 0.56%, to close at $25.26.

Inergy L.P. fell 12 cents, or 0.59%, to close at $20.22.

Kansas City Life Insurance Co. fell 54 cents, or 1.41%, to close at $37.80.

Kansas City Southern fell $1.30, or 1.23%, to close at $104.34.

Layne Christensen Co. fell 29 cents, or 1.31%, to close at $21.90.

O’Reilly Automotive Inc. fell $1.13, or 1.08%, to close at $103.44.

Sprint Nextel Corp. was unchanged at $5.87.

UMB Financial Corp. fell 6 cents, or 0.13%, to close at $45.63.

Waddell & Reed Financial Corp. rose 34 cents, or 0.82%, to close at $42.05.

YRC Worldwide Inc. fell 21 cents, or 3.43%, to close at $5.91.