US open: Wall Street pushes higher despite slight miss on jobs report

Wall Street was making new inroads into record territory despite the release of a raft of weaker-than-expected economic data, although a top US rate-setter did hold out the possibility in a speech that tax cuts might unleash a sharp increase in investment.

At 1621 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrials Average was tacking on 0.37% or 91.93 points to 25,167,76, alongside a similarly-sized gain for the S&P 500 to 2,734.39 and a 0.65% advance on the Nasdaq Composite to 7,123.71.

To take note of, volatility continued to be under wraps, with the VIX volatility gauge continuing to hover near record lows and up by a mere 0.33% to 9.25.

From a sector standpoint, the strongest performance was being put in by the following industry groups: Mobile telecommunications (2.35%), Toys (201%) and Oil equipment (1.85%).

Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said any concerns about a post-tax reform pull-back in equity markets have quickly been quashed, with indices in the US posting decent gains in the first week of the year as investors anticipate another good earnings season.

"We've seen very good earnings growth from companies in the US and Europe in recent quarters and I think the optimism that we’re seeing at the start of the year is potentially being driven by expectations of a similarly positive fourth quarter," he said.

In the background, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of St.Louis, James Bullard sounded a cautious note, telling an audience there was no need for the central bank to tighten policy more quickly.

Bullard also held out the possibility - contrary to the views of many observers - that the new tax bill might unleash "a lot" of investment in the US which might result in an "outsized effect" on the economy.

Be that as it may, US non-farm payrolls rose by just 148,000 in December, falling short of the 175,000 increase expected by the consensus, amid weak hiring in retail.

Services sector activity also softened last month, with the ISM's Purchasing Managers' Index printing at 55.9, versus a reading of 57.4 for the month before (consensus: 57.8).

Rounding out a poor day in terms of the flow of data, America's shortfall in foreign trade widened from -$48.9bn for October to -$50.5bn in November (consensus: -$49.5bn).

On the corporate front, tech giant Apple was managing to claw back from early losses after it confirmed that all devices running its mobile and PC operating systems are affected by two major flaws in computer chips.