U.S. stocks soared on Thursday, lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 to their all-time closing highs, boosted by Federal Reserve Chaiman Ben Bernanke's recent dovish speech which eased fears of an early stimulus pullback.

The Dow surged 169.26 points, or 1.11 percent, to 15,460.92 points. The S&P 500 jumped 22.40 points, or 1.36 percent, to 1,675. 02 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index leapt 57.54 points, or 1.63 percent, to 3,578.30 points.

"The return of upward momentum to the market, I believe, coincides with communication from the Fed that its accommodative policies will remain in place for the foreseeable future," Gregory Keating, managing director of New York-based James E. Coffey Securities Inc, told Xinhua on Thursday.

Bernanke said highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is what's needed in the U.S. economy at the Q&A phase following his speech at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Boston shortly after the stock market closed on Wednesday.

On the previous trading day, major stock indices wobbled and closed narrowly mixed after minutes of the Fed's June policy meeting revealed that top officials of the central bank remained divided on when to taper the massive bond purchases program.

Keating said the "tapering" debate is continuing with the contention that it will happen sometime later this year.

However, he argued that the Fed has done its best to communicate that until the unemployment rate falls to that 6.5 percent level and inflation can elevate to around 2 percent, the policies that have been a boon to stock market will remain in place.

Keating forecast that the market should continue to ride upward in the near term and has room to trade higher this year.

On the economic front, in the week ending July 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 360,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 344, 000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

"Mirroring last year, jobless claims had a bump in July thanks to auto plant shutdowns. Despite the swings, the less volatile four-week average remains within 340-360k range in the last three months," Mei Li, an economic analyst at FTN Financial, commented in a note on Thursday.

Meanwhile, U.S. prices for import and export in June fell for the fourth consecutive month, also according to the Labor Department Thursday.

On other markets, the U.S. dollar dropped against other major currencies on Bernanke's remarks. The Japanese yen strengthened against the greenback after Bank of Japan (BOJ) upgraded its assessment of the Japanese economy for the seventh consecutive month.

The BOJ provided a rosier outlook for the Japanese economy in a statement following its policy meeting which ended Thursday, saying "Japan's economy is expected to recover moderately on the back of the resilience in domestic demand and the pickup in overseas economies."

In late New York trading, the euro gained to 1.3104 dollars from 1. 2881 dollars of the previous session and the British pound increased to 1.5192 dollars from 1.4923 dollars. It bought 99.03 Japanese yen, lower than 100.18 yen of the previous session.

Oil prices dropped from a 15-month high, as the International Energy Agency's monthly report showed global oil supply will outstrip demand growth next year. Light, sweet crude for August delivery lost 1.61 dollars, to settle at 104.91 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for August delivery went down 0.78 dollars, to close at 107.73 dollars a barrel.

Gold futures rallied sharply to a two-week high. The most active gold contract for August delivery rose 32.5 dollars, or 2. 61 percent, to settle at 1,279.9 dollars per ounce.

Source: Xinhuanet