STORY: U.S. stocks finished mixed Thursday with the Dow rising about two-thirds of one percent, the S&P 500 adding four tenths and the Nasdaq slipping marginally.
Data showed U.S. retail sales growth slowed in April, while a separate report showed producer price inflation unexpectedly fell last month.
That followed a relatively tame consumer price reading earlier in the week.
But John Creekmur, chief investment officer with Creekmur Wealth Advisors, said investors are still waiting for more data to see how the economic picture is developing.
"So right now the market is trying to figure things out. We do foresee some instability throughout the rest of the summertime. We're going to see how the economic numbers play out both from employment, sales and then also as the overall economy are with GDP. Are we expanding? Are we retracting a little bit? That'll give us some gauge on where things are going right now. Caution is the most important word of the day."
Stocks on the move included Cisco Systems, which jumped almost 5% after the networking company raised its annual forecast, driven by the artificial intelligence boom.
Shares of UnitedHealth plunged almost 11% to a five-year low, after the Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. Department of Justice was conducting a criminal investigation into the company for possible Medicare fraud.
UnitedHealth said it had not been informed of a criminal probe by federal prosecutors.
And shares of Walmart ended lower but recovered from steeper losses earlier in the session after the retail giant warned it would start raising prices later this month due to tariffs, even after its first-quarter U.S. comparable sales beat expectations.
