U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday after President Donald Trump said that he would make an announcement regarding taxes in the next few weeks. In U.S. economic news, weekly jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 234,000, below a consensus estimate of 250,000. Wholesale trade data for December showed a 1 percent increase on inventories. In international economic news, the head of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's said in an interview with The Economist that far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's debt plan for France would trigger a default. The dollar gained ground against a basket of currencies. Light sweet crude oil for March delivery added 70 cents to $53.04 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gold futures dropped $7.30 to $1,232.20 per ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 125, or 0.62 percent, to 20,180. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 12, or 0.54 percent, to 2,307. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index advanced 30, or 0.55 percent, to 5,713.
