国际英语新闻:Dow, S&P set record closing highs on Bernanke stimulus reassurance

NEW YORK, July 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks soared on Thursday, lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 to their all-time closing highs, boosted by Federal Reserve Chaiman Ben Bernanke's recent dovish speech which eased fears of an early stimulus pullback.

The Dow surged 169.26 points, or 1.11 percent, to 15,460.92 points. The S&P 500 jumped 22.40 points, or 1.36 percent, to 1,675. 02 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index leapt 57.54 points, or 1.63 percent, to 3,578.30 points.

"The return of upward momentum to the market, I believe, coincides with communication from the Fed that its accommodative policies will remain in place for the foreseeable future," Gregory Keating, managing director of New York-based James E. Coffey Securities Inc, told Xinhua on Thursday.

Bernanke said highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is what's needed in the U.S. economy at the Q&A phase following his speech at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Boston shortly after the stock market closed on Wednesday.

On the previous trading day, major stock indices wobbled and closed narrowly mixed after minutes of the Fed's June policy meeting revealed that top officials of the central bank remained divided on when to taper the massive bond purchases program.

Keating said the "tapering" debate is continuing with the contention that it will happen sometime later this year.

However, he argued that the Fed has done its best to communicate that until the unemployment rate falls to that 6.5 percent level and inflation can elevate to around 2 percent, the policies that have been a boon to stock market will remain in place.

Keating forecast that the market should continue to ride upward in the near term and has room to trade higher this year.

On the economic front, in the week ending July 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 360,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 344, 000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.