U.S. stocks end at record highs after strong jobs data

NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S stocks kept rising Thursday, with the Dow shooting above 25,000 points for the first time, as investor cheered over strong U.S. private-sector hiring data.

All three major indexes set new closing records on Thursday. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 152.45 points, or 0.61 percent, to 25,075.13. The S&P 500 added 10.93 points, or 0.40 percent, to 2,723.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 12.38 points, or 0.18 percent, to 7,077.91.

The U.S. private sector added 250,000 jobs in December, well above the market consensus of 190,000, according to the National Employment Report released by the ADP Research Institute on Thursday.

The ADP figure is widely seen as a pre-indicator for the non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.

Meanwhile, in the week ending Dec. 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 250,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

The four-week moving average was 241,750, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average.

The seasonally adjusted final IHS Markit U.S. Services Business Activity Index registered 53.7 in December, down from 54.5 in November but beating market estimates of 52.4.

"Positive global economic releases have propelled equity markets higher thus far in 2018 just as they did in 2017," Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer of the U.S. Krane Funds Advisors, told Xinhua.

"U.S. equity markets have risen due to positive U.S. payrolls and manufacturing data in addition to benefits from corporate and individual tax reform," he added. Enditem