The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was on pace for its 39th record close of 2024 on Thursday, helped along by solid retail-sales data and favorable employment figures. Stocks have been pushing deeper into record territory for months,

The broad index gained 0.6% to end at 5,815.03, while the Dow rallied 409.74 points, or nearly 1%, to finish at 42,863.86. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.3% to finish at 18,342.94 and less than 2% below its all-time high.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq pared their gains to end essentially unchanged on Thursday, while the Dow notched a record closing high as investors parsed an array of mixed quarterly earnings and digested a series of robust economic reports.