NEW YORK, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended higher Friday, with all three major indices closing at record highs, as Wall Street digested the newly-released jobs report and strong corporate earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22.93 points, or 0.10 percent, to 23,539.19. The S&P 500 rose 7.99 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,587.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 49.49 points, or 0.74 percent, to 6,764.44.
In corporate news, shares of Apple rose 2.61 percent on Friday, after the tech giant reported quarterly earnings for its fiscal 2017 fourth quarter and issued strong guidance for the current quarter.
The company posted quarterly revenue of 52.6 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 12 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of 2.07 dollars, up 24 percent.
The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the third quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 8.0 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 5.2 percent.
On the economic front, U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 261,000 in October, well below market expectations, and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1 percent, according to the U.S. Labor Department Friday.
Traders kept a close eye on a nonfarm payroll report and tried to find clues on when the Federal Reserve might increase interest rate next.
The Fed earlier this week left its benchmark interest rates unchanged, but did leave the door open for a December rate hike. Expectations for a December rate hike are more than 98 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday announced his nomination of Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell to succeed Fed Chair Janet Yellen whose term expires in February.
Powell's nomination to head the U.S. central bank is widely regarded as a "safe choice" for the Trump administration, as he holds similar views to Yellen in terms of monetary policy approach as well as openness to deregulation which the Trump administration is advocating.
