S&P 500 refreshed its all-time high Tuesday for four trading sessions in a row, as investors broadly expected that the U.S. Federal Reserve would maintain its stimulus following the long-delayed September non-farm payrolls report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 75.46 points, or 0.49 percent, to 15,467.66 points. The S&P 500 rose 10.01 points, or 0. 57 percent, to 1,754.67 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 9.52 points, or 0.24 percent, to 3,929.57 points.
U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs in September, missing market estimates, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Meanwhile unemployment rate edged down to a near-five-year low of 7.2 percent from 7.3 percent in August, mainly due to a lower labor- force participation rate.
Economists believed that the U.S. central bank would not taper its quantitative easing until early next year, since the Fed has emphasized many times that the timing of tapering of its stimulus policy would depend on economic data.
"The Fed wants to see strength in employment before tapering and it not only wasn't there in September, it isn't expected in October, either," FTN Financial Chief Economist Christopher Low said in a note Tuesday.
Analysts believed the over-two-week government shutdown had little impact on the U.S. economy in September but would pose a larger impact in October and November.
Moreover, the Commerce Department announced Tuesday that construction spending advanced 0.6 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 915.1 billion U.S. dollars.
Wall Street also regained momentum from two Dow components which reported better-than-expected third-quarter profits on Tuesday morning.
U.S. chemical company DuPont reported net income attributable to the company of 285 million dollars, up from 5 million dollars in the year-ago quarter, beating market consensus. Meanwhile, United Technologies Corp.'s third-quarter net sales rose to 15.46 billion dollars, up 2.8 percent year on year.
Apple shares inched down 0.29 percent to 519.87 dollars after the iPhone maker unveiled its new line of iPads -- the iPad Air and iPad mini.
The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered as a fear gauge of the market, increased 1.37 percent to end at 13.34.
In other markets, light, sweet crude for November delivery decreased 1.42 dollars to settle at 97.8 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday. Brent crude for December delivery increased 33 cents to close at 109.97 dollars a barrel.
Gold futures for December delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange surged 26.8 dollars to settle at 1, 342.6 dollars per ounce on a weaker dollar Tuesday.
The U.S. dollar plunged against major currencies Tuesday as the September non-farm payrolls report spurred speculations that the Fed may delay its tapering of bond buying programs. In late New York trading, the euro soared to 1.3783 dollars from 1.3677 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.6239 dollars from 1.6145.
