NEW YORK, April 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded lower on Thursday, as investors digested a batch of latest economic data, including U.S. jobless claims last week and U.S. producer prices in March.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 44.83 points, or 0.17 percent, to 26,112.33. The S&P 500 was down 2.90 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,891.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 15.41 points, or 0.19 percent, to 7,948.83.

Shares of JetBlue Airways rose over 2 percent, after the low-cost carrier announced plans on Wednesday to provide service to London in 2021, a move to compete with large international airlines in busy cosmopolitan markets.

Yet shares of Costco fell nearly 1.2 percent, after the leading U.S. wholesale corporation posted a comparable store sales increase of 5.9 percent for March, lower than that of February.

Seven of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded higher around midday, with the industrials sector up nearly 0.6 percent, leading the winners.

On the economic front, the Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.6 percent in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. Final demand prices edged up 0.1 percent in February and decreased 0.1 percent in January.

The increase came mainly as a surge in the cost of gasoline. For the 12 months ended in March, the final demand index increased 2.2 percent, the largest 12-month rise since December 2018.

U.S. jobless claims, or the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits, sharply declined by 8,000 to 196,000 in the week ending April 6, said the Labor Department on Thursday.

This marks the lowest level for initial claims since Oct. 4, 1969, signaling a strong labor market that props up the U.S. economy. Enditem

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