U.S. shares closed higher on Thursday extending an all-time record high of the benchmark index Standard & Poor's 500 after a government report showed that jobless claim declined in the world's largest economy last week. The S&P 500 Index added 0.5% to 1,841.58 as of 1:51 p.m. New York time and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.7% to 16,469.33