US stocks extended the New Year’s rally on Thursday, while the Dow industrials broke above the 25,000 level for the first time.
The 30-member blue-chip index crossed five 1,000-point marks in 2017 on solid corporate earnings and hopes for a pro-growth agenda by US President Donald Trump.
It took less than a year for the Dow to add a 5,000-point milestone, which is the fastest since the index was created in May 1896, reports Reuters.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 152.45 points, or 0.61 per cent, to 25,075.13, the S&P 500 gained 10.93 points, or 0.40 per cent, to 2,723.99 and the Nasdaq Composite added 12.38 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 7,077.92.
Financials led gains on the S&P 500 on Thursday, with Wells Fargo up 1.3 per cent, JPMorgan Chase up 1.4 per cent and Goldman Sachs also up 1.4 per cent.
On the downside, Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands slid 12.3 per cent after a disappointing quarterly earnings forecast.
Macy’s fell 3.3 per cent after it reported only modest growth in holiday sales and saying it would close stores and slash thousands of jobs this year. Other department store operators also fell.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.46-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.50-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.