NEW YORK, July 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday as investors digested a batch of economic data and the Fed minutes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 181.92 points, or 0.75 percent, to 24,356.74. The S&P 500 rose 23.39 points, or 0.86 percent, to 2,736.61. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 83.75 points, or 1.12 percent, to 7,586.43.

The Dow's advances were led by Intel and Walgreens Boots Alliance. Shares of both companies rose more than 2.5 percent at market closing. Ten of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors gained, with tech leading the advancers. Skyworks Solutions and Qualcomm were among the outperformers on the Nasdaq. Shares of the companies surged 4.40 percent and 3.71 percent, respectively.

Investors paid close attention to several key data.

The U.S. private sector employment increased by 177,000 jobs from May to June, data provider ADP and Moody's Analytics said on Thursday.

In the week ending June 30, the initial jobless claims was 231,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department reported.

On Thursday afternoon, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its latest meeting. Investors pored through the documents to look for clues about future monetary policy moves.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street was concerned over the potential trade wars between the United States and other major economies, experts noted. Enditem