Stock indexes in America rallied to records for the second time this month after minutes from the Federal Reserve allayed investor concern that the American economy is heading for a recession.

Yum! Brands Inc., the owner of the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains, climbed to an all-time high after earnings topped analysts’ estimates. Molson Coors Brewing Co., the third-largest American brewer, rose to a record on its plan to combine American operations with SABMiller Plc. Alcoa Inc., the first member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to release third-quarter profit, gained before reporting results after the market’s close.

The Dow average and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced to all-time highs after minutes showed Fed members avoided language that may have suggested the American economy will contract. Policy makers backed a decision to cut the benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point at the September 18 meeting and said a decline in inflation will probably be sustained.

The S&P 500 Index added 12.57, or 0.8%, to 1,565.15. The Dow increased 120.8, or 0.9%, to 14,164.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 16.54, or 0.6%, to 2,803.91.

“The stock market is relieved that the Fed isn’t seeing any broad-based weakness in the economy,” the chief investment officer at Eastern Investment Advisors in Boston, John Kattar, said. “There was fear in the equity market that the Fed was seeing something that we, the market, didn’t see. The minutes go a long way to displacing that.”

Yum jumped $1.82 to $38.11. Third-quarter profit climbed 17% on higher China sales and Yum said it plans to buy back up to $4 billion of stock over the next two years. Full-year profit will be $1.65 a share, higher than the $1.63 a share Yum previously forecast. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had estimated $1.64.

Mergers and acquisitions contributed to the market’s advance. SABMiller, the world’s third-largest brewer, agreed to combine its American operations with Molson Coors to catch up with Anheuser-Busch Cos. The joint venture is expected to save $500 million a year. Molson added $5.32, or 10%, to $56.15 for the steepest advance in the S&P 500.

In other deals, AT&T Inc., the largest American phone company, agreed to buy airwaves from Aloha Partners LP for about $2.5 billion so customers can access video and send text messages more quickly. AT&T added 5 cents to $41.98. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. agreed to buy Turkish freight company U.N. Ro-Ro Isletmeleri AS in a transaction worth $1.3 billion, Turkey’s biggest private-equity acquisition.

Alcoa shares added $1.42, or 3.7%, to $39.72. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg forecast profit excluding some items rose to 65 cents a share from 62 cents a year earlier.

“Earnings are going to be almost flat, but this echoes what we saw in the last business cycle,” the chief investment strategist at LPL Financial Group in Boston, Jeffrey Kleintop, said. “Profit slowed from 1996 to 1998, and yet stocks did very well because investors looked through that to the resumption of growth on the other side.”