NEW YORK, April 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded mixed on Thursday as Wall Street digested a slew of key economic data amid the earnings season.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 98.19 points, or 0.37 percent, to 26,547.73. The S&P 500 was up 2.42 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,902.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 9.07 points, or 0.11 percent, to 7,987.01.

Of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors, industrials rose about 1 percent in midday trading, the best-performing group. Energy, however, declined 0.4 percent.

Shares of The Travelers Companies, Inc. climbed 2.8 percent around midday after the U.S. insurer reported quarterly profit beating analysts' estimates on Thursday.

American Express also reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings before Thursday's opening. The stock was up 1.7 percent at midday.

Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far, more than 78 percent have topped analyst expectations, FactSet data showed.

On the economic front, the advance estimates of U.S. retail sales were 514.1 billion U.S. dollars in March, an increase of 1.6 percent from the previous month, as spending on autos, gasoline, furniture, and clothing jumped, according to the Department of Commerce on Thursday. The reading was higher than market consensus.

Meanwhile, in the week ending April 13, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 192,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported. Economists polled by MarketWatch forecast a reading of 204,000. Enditem

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