US stocks end mixed

New York: As Wall Street digested a slew of economic data, US stocks ended mixed on Thursday after wavering in a narrow range around the flatline.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 5.74 points (0.03 percent) on Thursday to 17,408.25. The S&P 500 fell 2.66 points (0.13 percent) to 2,083.39. The Nasdaq composite index lost 10.83 points (90.21 percent) to 5,033.56, reported Xinhua.

US commerce department said advance estimates of US retail and food services sales for July were $446.5 billion -- an increase of 0.6 percent from the previous month.

Meanwhile, in the week ending August 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 274,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level, according to US labor department report released on Thursday.

The four-week moving average was 266,250, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average or the lowest level since April 15, 2000.

US import prices declined 0.9 percent in July, after recording no change from the previous month, the labour department said in another report.

In corporate news, shares of Cisco jumped 2.87 percent to $28.70 a share on Thursday after posting better-than-expected quarterly results.

The network equipment-maker reported net income of $2.3 billion on revenue of $12.8 billion for its fourth fiscal quarter ended July 25, 2015.

Overseas, Chinese equities closed higher on Thursday as fears of further currency depreciation subsided following the central bank of China's reassurance that the yuan's value has "returned to market levels" after days of sharp declines.