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NEW YORK: US stocks ended mixed on Thursday as fresh jobs and inflation data came nearly within expectations, underscoring a fragile economic recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45.50 points (0.42 percent) to 10,779.17, marking an eight-session winning streak that took the blue-chip index to almost 18-month highs.
The Nasdaq composite added 2.19 points (0.09 percent) to 2,391.28 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.39 point (0.03 percent) to 1,165.82.
Analysts said the market reacted to February data on consumer prices and weekly jobless insurance benefit claims that effectively showed the economy continued to slowly regain its strength after a brutal recession.
"The slightly positive reports on jobless claims and consumer prices were offsetting fresh concerns about debt problems in Greece," said Wells Fargo Advisors senior equity market strategist Scott Marcouiller.
The Labour Department data showed weekly initial unemployment insurance claims at five-week lows and tame inflation, posing little threat to the Federal Reserve's ultra-low interest rate policy.
The consumer price index, a measure of the average change in prices of goods and services purchased by households, was unchanged in February from a 0.2 percent rise the previous month, the Labour Department said.
Most analysts had expected a 0.1 percent rise in February.
New claims for jobless insurance benefits edged down last week to 457,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's figures.
The figure was slightly higher than the 455,000 expected by analysts and remains at an elevated level that reflects the troubled labour market.
"Inflation indicators are subdued at the consumer level, which is certainly lending to the Fed's patience in keeping the fed funds rate at the zero bound," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
"Similarly, the labour market isn't lighting a fire under the Fed either even if it has stabilised some," he said.
In other data, business research firm The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators gained just 0.1 percent in February, the smallest rise in 11 months.
Among stocks in focus, Nike bounced 5.33 percent to 74.66 dollars after the sporting goods maker reported forecast-breaking quarterly earnings more than double the year-ago results.
Delivery and logistics firm FedEx rose 3.20 percent to 92.67 dollars after it also reported quarterly earnings more than doubled from a year ago.
Ford fell 2.62 percent to 13.73 dollars. The automaker will invest 1.5 billion pounds (2.295 billion dollars) in four factories in Britain over the next five years thanks to a loan guarantee from the British government.
Drug manufacturer Pfizer rose 0.12 percent to 17.23 dollars. German firm Ratiopharm, which reportedly Pfizer was eyeing for a takeover, was bought on Thursday by Israeli generic drugs giant Teva for 3.6 billion euros (4.9 billion dollars).
The bond market weakened. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond advanced to 3.672 percent from 3.642 percent on Wednesday and that on the 30-year bond increased to 4.589 percent from 4.572 percent. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. - AFP/de
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