U.S. stocks keep rising despite downbeat jobs report

NEW YORK, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded higher in the morning session Friday despite a negative report of the country's nonfarm payrolls.

By midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 87.36 points, or 0.35 percent, to 25,162.49. The S&P 500 added 9.60 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,733.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 46.29 points, or 0.65 percent, to 7,124.20.

U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 148,000 in December 2017, missing market expectations of 190,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent.

In December, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by nine cents to 26.63 U.S. dollars. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 65 cents, or 2.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Friday that the goods and services deficit was 50.5 billion U.S. dollars in November, up 1.6 billion dollars from October.

In a separate report, the department said that U.S. new orders for manufactured goods in November increased 6.5 billion dollars, or 1.3 percent, to 488.1 billion dollars, beating market estimates.

The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index registered 55.9 percent in December, which is 1.5 percent lower than the November reading of 57.4 percent, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said Friday.

Analysts said that the recent solid gains in U.S. equities have been buoyed by the prospect of a U.S. corporate tax-cut package, rising commodity prices and robust corporate earnings.

All three major indices closed at record highs on Thursday, with the Dow shooting above 25,000 points for the first time, as investors cheered over strong U.S. private-sector hiring data. Enditem