NEW YORK, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday as investors digested third quarter earnings reports as well as latest economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 31.88 points, or 0.14 percent, to 22,841.01. The S&P 500 was down 4.31 points, or 0.17 percent, to 2,550.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 12.04 points, or 0.18 percent, to 6,591.51.
JP Morgan Chase reported quarterly earnings per share of 1.76 U.S. dollars and net revenue of 26.2 billion dollars, beating market expectations. However, investors were concerned about the banking giant's 27-percent year-over-year decline in fixed income trading revenue.
Citigroup also reported better-than-expected earnings. Its earnings per diluted share in the third quarter reached 1.42 dollars while the revenues stood at 18.2 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, shares of Equifax declined 1.53 percent after the company said it is investigating another possible cyberbreach.
On the economic front, the Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand increased 0.4 percent last month after rising 0.2 percent in August. In the 12 months through September, the index rose 2.6 percent.
In a separate report, the department said the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 243,000 in the week ending Oct. 7, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level.
The four-week moving average was 257,500, a decrease of 9,500 from the previous week's revised average, said the department.
