U.S. stocks ended mixed on Thursday with tech shares lagging, as investors weighed better- than-expected jobs and housing data against worsening Greek debt problems.
Major indexes opened higher on Thursday after the Labor Department said that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits for the first time fell last week to 414,000.
Meanwhile, a report from the Commerce Department showed housing starts rose 3.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units, retracing almost half of April's steep decline.
However, a survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed manufacturing activities slowed in that region, one day after a similar report found that manufacturing was slowing in the New York area.
Stocks fell sharply in the previous session as investors became increasingly concerned about the debt crisis in Greece. Worries about a possible default still weighed on the market.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 64.25 points, or 0.54 percent, to 11,961.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 was up 2.22 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,267.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 7.76 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,623.70.
