NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S stocks kept rising in the morning session Thursday, with the Dow shooting above 25,000 points for the first time, as investor cheered over strong U.S. private-sector hiring data.

By midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 138.68 points, or 0.56 percent, to 25,061.36. The S&P 500 added 11.17 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,724.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 11.84 points, or 0.17 percent, to 7,077.37.

The U.S. private sector added 250,000 jobs in December, well above the market consensus of 190,000, according to the National Employment Report released by the ADP Research Institute on Thursday.

The ADP figure is widely seen as a pre-indicator for the non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.

Meanwhile, in the week ending Dec. 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 250,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

The four-week moving average was 241,750, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average.

The seasonally adjusted final IHS Markit U.S. Services Business Activity Index registered 53.7 in December, down from 54.5 in November but beating market estimates of 52.4.

U.S. stocks continued to rise Wednesday, with all three major indices closing at record highs, as investors digested the minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting. Enditem