NEW YORK, Aug 15 — United States (US) stocks ended mixed on Thursday, as investors once again bought the dip despite a disappointing wholesale inflation report, Xinhua reported.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 11.01 points, or 0.02 per cent, to close at 44,911.26.

The S&P 500 inched up 1.96 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 6,468.54, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 2.47 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 21,710.67.

Earlier in the day, both the S&P and Nasdaq were down as much as 0.4 per cent before recovering, while the Dow had been more than 200 points lower at one point.

Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors declined, with industrials and materials leading declines, down 0.88 per cent and 0.81 per cent, respectively. Financials and health care were the top gainers, rising 0.55 per cent and 0.5 per cent.

The producer price index (PPI), which tracks prices for final demand goods and services, surged 0.9 per cent in July — the largest jump since June 2022 — far exceeding the Dow Jones estimate of a 0.2 per cent increase, according to a Thursday report from the US Bureau of Labour Statistics.

Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, also rose 0.9 per cent, tripling the projected 0.3 per cent. When excluding food, energy and trade services, the index climbed 0.6 per cent, the fastest pace since March 2022.

On an annual basis, the headline PPI rose 3.3 per cent, the largest increase since February, while core PPI rose 3.7 per cent.

“Producers are starting to feel the inflation fire heat,” Chris Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds, said on Thursday. “It will only be a matter of time before producers pass their higher tariff-related costs on to the backs of inflation-weary consumers.”

Despite the stronger-than-expected inflation figure, traders continued to anticipate a September interest rate cut, with Fed Funds futures pricing in a roughly 93 per cent probability, only marginally lower than the prior day, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

“It seems to be reasonably clear at this point that this wasn’t enough to get the Fed off of another cut, or get it going on a cutting cycle,” said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments.

Mega-cap technology stocks mostly rose. Amazon gained 2.87 per cent, while Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Broadcom posted smaller gains. Tesla fell 1 per cent, and Apple edged slightly lower. — Bernama-Xinhua