1st LD: U.S. stocks close at record highs ahead of earnings season

NEW YORK, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks rallied to close at record highs on Tuesday, as investors were optimistic about the coming corporate earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 102.80 points, or 0.41 percent, to 25,385.80. The S&P 500 rose 3.58 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,751.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 6.19 points, or 0.09 percent, to 7,163.58.

The fourth-quarter earnings season is set to begin this week. Financial giants J.P. Morgan Chase, BlackRock, and Wells Fargo are among the companies scheduled to release results.

For the financial sector, Stephen Guilfoyle, president of Sarge986 LLC, estimated earnings growth come in somewhere between 3 percent and 3.5 percent.

The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the fourth quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 11.8 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 6.9 percent.

U.S. equities surged for the last week, with all three major indices refreshing their closing records several times, as investor sentiment was buoyed by the prospect of a U.S. corporate tax-cut package and generally upbeat economic data.

All three major indices also broke key milestones the first trading week of 2018, as the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed above 25,000, 2,700 and 7,000, respectively, for the first time ever.

Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs on Monday.

"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," Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer of the U.S. Krane Funds Advisors, told Xinhua in a recent interview. Enditem