The Dow Jones Industrial average and the S & P 500 closed slightly higher on Thursday, setting new closing highs and rising a few minutes before the close after news that Federal Reserve Governor Powell took the lead in President Trump's nomination for Fed chairman.

The Dow Jones Industrial average rose 5.44 points, or 0.02%, to 23163.04, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.84 points, or 0.03%, to 2562.10, and the NASDAQ fell 19.153 points, or 0.29%, to 6605.067.

Us stocks stimulated the ADR index of Hong Kong stocks to stabilize, closing pro rata at 28323 points, up 164points or 0.58 per cent. HSBC Holdings PLC closed at 76.74 yuan, up 0.74 yuan from the Hong Kong closing market; Tencent closed at 349.35 yuan, up 3.15 yuan from the Hong Kong closing market; China Mobile Limited closed at 78.27 yuan, down 0.03 yuan from the Hong Kong closing market.

Stocks rebounded from early losses for most of the afternoon ahead of the announcement of the Fed's choice, and the White House said yesterday that President Trump would announce the Fed's choice of chairman "within a few days".

"it is clear that the closing result is due to speculation that Powell will become chairman of the Fed," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. "I don't see any other reason to close higher on Thursday."

He said the market sees Powell as a policy dove and may continue the position of Yellen, the current Fed chairman. In the case of extraordinarily loose monetary policy, the market is happy to see the continuation of the policy.

Trump's list of candidates for the next Fed chairman also includes Yellen, White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, former Fed Governor Walsh and Stanford University economist Taylor.

Technology stocks fell sharply, led by Apple Inc, who led the decline by 2.4 per cent, as doubts about the company's simultaneous launch of iPhone 8 and iPhone X strategies this year unnerved investors.