U.S. stocks close higher for fifth day

NEW YORK, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday, notching a fifth-day winning streak amid a batch of economic data from the country.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 306.88 points, or 1.23 percent, to 25,200.37. The S&P 500 increased 32.57 points, or 1.21 percent, to

2,731.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 112.81 points, or 1.58 percent, to 7,256.43.

For Chinese companies listed in the U.S. market, shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba gained 0.37 percent to settle at 187.45 U.S. dollars, while shares of another Chinese technology company Baidu soared 5.22 percent to close at 248.20 U.S. dollars.

The U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday its producer price index for final demand increased 0.4 percent last month after being unchanged in December, in line with market expectations.

Another report from the Labor Department on Thursday showed that in the week ending February 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 230,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level.

Analysts said recent data rekindled concerns of surging inflation in the country, which had helped to plunging the U.S. equities to two-year lows last week.

Investors worried that strong rise in inflation would make the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates as many as three times later this year. Enditem