U.S. stocks surged for the holiday-shortened week, with all three major indices refreshing their closing records several times, as investor sentiment was buoyed by the prospect of a U.S. corporate tax-cut package and generally upbeat economic data.

During the past week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted gains in every session and closed above the big round number of 25,000 points for the first time Wednesday, while both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index extended their record run to a fourth straight day Friday.

Investor euphoria was initially ignited by U.S. stocks' spectacular gains in 2017. U.S. stocks advanced exponentially in 2017, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq surging 19.4 percent, 25.1 percent and 28.2 percent, respectively.

The prospect of the U.S. tax reform also added some fuel to investor sentiment. U.S. President Donald Trump signed a 1.5-trillion-dollar tax cut bill into law later last month, which became effective from January, 2018.

The tax bill, the sweeping rewrite of U.S. tax law since 1986, cut the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent and lowered individual income rates. It is widely seen that both the U.S. economy and corporate earnings will benefit a lot from the new tax bill.

U.S. economic data also came in generally upbeat. The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit final U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) registered 55.1 in December, up from 53.9 in November and notching the highest level since March 2015.

The ISM December Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) registered 59.7 percent, an increase of 1.5 percentage points from the November reading of 58.2 percent and beating market consensus.

U.S. construction spending during November 2017 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,257 billion U.S. dollars, 0.8 percent above the revised October estimate.

The U.S. private sector added 250,000 jobs in December, well above the market consensus of 190,000, according to the National Employment Report released by ADP Research Institute.

The seasonally adjusted final IHS Markit U.S. Services Business Activity Index registered 53.7 in December, down from 54.5 in November but beating market estimates of 52.4.

The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index registered 55.9 percent in December, which is 1.5 percent lower than the November reading of 57.4 percent.

In the week ending Dec. 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 250,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level.

U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 148,000 in December 2017, missing market expectations of 190,000. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent.

U.S. new orders for manufactured goods in November increased 6.5 billion dollars, or 1.3 percent, to 488.1 billion dollars, beating market estimates.

"U.S. equity markets have risen due to positive U.S. payrolls and manufacturing data in addition to benefits from corporate and individual tax reform," Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer of the U.S. Krane Funds Advisors, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Investors also kept a close eye on the minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting. According to the minutes released Wednesday, Fed policy makers continued to expect that, with gradual adjustments in the stance of monetary policy, economic activity would expand at a moderate pace and labor market conditions would remain strong.

Fed members agreed that the timing and size of future adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate would depend on their assessments of realized and expected economic conditions relative to the Fed's objectives of maximum employment and 2 percent inflation.

In December, the U.S. central bank raised the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points for the third time in 2017 and suggested three more rate hikes in 2018.

Ahern said concerns of higher U.S. interest rates, which could be a headwind for equities and their high valuations, have subsided for the time being as witnessed by the U.S. dollar's continued weakness.

"Investors appear to have discounted the probability of the U.S. Federal Reserve delivering multiple interest rate hikes in 2018 which makes U.S. equities appear attractive to U.S. fixed income investments. Time will determine if this view was correct," he added.

For the holiday-shortened week, all three major indices posted solid gains, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq surging 2.3 percent, 2.6 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.