Wall Street extended its gains Friday as the Dow Jones industrial average refreshed its record high on corporate takeover news.

Reports said Microsoft has renewed talks to take over Yahoo Inc and the deal could be worth 50 billion U.S. dollars.

Shares of Yahoo surged 4.60 dollars, or more than 16 percent, to 32.80 dollars, while Microsoft stock fell 45 cents a share to 30.51 dollars. Other tech stocks rose fueled by the reports.

Meanwhile, Reuters Group PLC said it had received a preliminary takeover offer, and reports said Thomson Corp., the financial data provider, was a front-runner to buy the company.

However, the Labor Department reported Friday that payrolls grew by just 88,000 last month as job losses spread beyond manufacturing and construction and into retailing and financial services.

The new tally of jobs added to the economy was the fewest since 65,000 jobs were added in November 2004.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 23.89 points, or 0.18 percent, to 13,265.27, setting another new record high.

The Nasdaq composite was up 6.69 points, or 0.26 percent, to 2, 572.15 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index added 3.24 points or 0. 22 percent to 1,505.63.

Source: Xinhua