Dow Jones Closes At Another Record High

The Dow Jones industrial average has closed at another all-time record high.

The Dow rose 167 points, or 1.1%, at 15,761.

The US government reported an unexpected surge in hiring last month, with employers adding 204,000 jobs.

"We're walking a tight wire with the Fed," said Rob Lutts, Chief Investment Officer at Cabot Money Management.

Mr Lutts said the job survey was positive because it showed the economy was improving, but perhaps not strongly enough to assure that Fed policymakers will pull back on its bond-buying program before the end of year.

JPMorgan Chase (Berlin: CMC.BE - news) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) rose the most in the Dow. The index also closed at a record high on Wednesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index ended 23.46 higher, or 1.3%, at 1,770.61, just a point below its record. The Nasdaq composite rose 61.90 points, or 1.6%, to 3,919.23.

Consumer-focused stocks such as Priceline.com and Disney also rose after reporting higher profits, and Gap (Frankfurt: GAP.F - news) soared after raising its earnings forecast. Losers included housing stocks and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR - news) , which dropped 7 percent the day after its initial public offering.

The jobs report was the second piece of unexpectedly robust economic news that Wall Street received in the past two days.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that the US economy grew at a 2.8% annualised rate in the third quarter, better than the 2.5% rate economists were looking for.