The US markets ended mostly in green on Thursday as traders digested an avalanche of US economic data, including a Labor Department report showing producer prices unexpectedly decreased in the month of April.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand fell by 0.5 percent in April following a revised unchanged reading in March, while street had expected producer prices to rise by 0.2 percent compared to the 0.4 percent decline originally reported for the previous month.
Besides, the Federal Reserve released a report on showing industrial production in the US came in unchanged in the month of April, which kept the market sentiments subdued.
The Fed said industrial production was unchanged in April after falling by 0.3 percent in March, while street had expected industrial production to rise by 0.2 percent.
However, traders took some support of report released by the Commerce Department showed a slight increase by U.S.
retail sales in the month of April.
The Commerce Department said retail sales crept up by 0.1 percent in April after surging by an upwardly revised 1.7 percent in March, while street had expected retail sales to inch up by 0.1 percent compared to the 1.4 percent jump originally reported for the previous month.On sectoral front, pharmaceutical stocks showed a strong move back to the upside following a recent slump, with the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index surging by 2.6 percent after ending Wednesday's trading at its lowest closing level in a month.
Besides, significant strength was also visible among utility stocks, as reflected by the 2.4 percent jump by the Dow Jones Utility Average.Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 271.69 points or 0.65 percent at 42,322.75 and S&P 500 rose 24.35 points or 0.41 percent to 5,916.93, while Nasdaq dipped 34.49 points or 0.18 percent to 19,112.32.