New York, Jun 14 (IANS): US stocks closed higher, boosted by the strong gains in energy and Disney shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 101.94 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 26,106.77 on Thursday. The S&P 500 increased 11.80 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 2,891.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 44.41 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 7,837.13, Xinhua reported.

The Walt Disney stock rose 4.44 per cent to close at USD 141.74 apiece after an analyst at Morgan Stanley raised his price target on the stock to USD 160 per share from USD 135 per share. The analyst attributed his optimism to the company's new streaming service.

The S&P 500 energy sector advanced 1.25 per cent, outpacing the rest. Health care fell 0.11 per cent, the only decliner among the 11 primary S&P 500 groups.

On the economic front, the US initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 222,000 in the week ending June 8, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported. Economists polled by MarketWatch estimated that new claims would total a seasonally adjusted 218,000.