The Nasdaq Composite crossed the 9,000 level for the first time Thursday as the major averages extended a Santa Claus rally that began on Tuesday.

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While the term might imply a one-day window, it's used on Wall Street to refer to gains made on the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the following year.

Thursday's increase came after Beijing confirmed that it is in close contact with the United States about signing a partial trade agreement.

NASDAQ'S 1,000 POINT MARCH TO 9,000 TOOK A BIT LONGER THAN USUAL

All three of the major averages closed in record territory and touched fresh intraday peaks. The Nasdaq has now closed at a record high in 10 straight sessions, the longest streak since July 1997.

Ticker Security Last Change Change % I:DJI DOW JONES AVERAGES 27173.96 +358.52 +1.34% SP500 S&P 500 3298.46 +51.87 +1.60% I:COMP NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX 10913.561787 +241.30 +2.26%

Retail stocks were in focus after Mastercard said holiday sales rose 3.4 percent year-over-year, boosted by an 18.8 percent in online spending.

Ticker Security Last Change Change % AMZN AMAZON.COM INC. 3,095.13 +75.34 +2.49% WMT WALMART INC. 137.27 +0.57 +0.42% TGT TARGET CORP. 154.35 +2.35 +1.55% JWN NORDSTROM 11.92 -0.20 -1.65% M MACY'S INC. 6.03 0.00 0.00%

Meanwhile, Boeing shares continued to slide after a congressional aide told Reuters on Tuesday that new documents revealed “very disturbing” information about the grounded 737 Max jet.

Tesla gained after Wedbush analyst Dan Ives lifted his price target to $370 from $270, citing a "fundamental improvement." His new price target was 13 percent below where shares settled on Tuesday.

Uber was higher after a filing showed co-founder Travis Kalanick unloaded his last 5.8 million shares.

Elsewhere, Rite Aid continued to soar, and have now more than doubled since the company reported better-than-expected results on Dec. 19.

Ticker Security Last Change Change % BA BOEING COMPANY 156.03 +9.98 +6.83% TSLA TESLA INC. 407.34 +19.55 +5.04% UBER UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC. 34.46 +1.11 +3.33% RAD RITE AID 10.00 -0.98 -8.93%

Looking at commodities, gold was up 0.7 percent at $1,516 an ounce and West Texas Intermediate crude oil was higher by 1 percent near $61.70 a barrel.

U.S. Treasurys were little changed with the yield on the 10-year note down 1 basis point at 1.895 percent.

Chinese markets surged on Thursday after the government announced a relaxation of residency restrictions for small and medium cities that boosted property stocks. The Shanghai Composite index jumped 0.9 percent. Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.6 percent.

Markets were closed in Europe and Hong Kong.

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FOX Business' Ken Martin and The Associated Press contributed to this article.