NEW YORK, June 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks finished higher on Thursday as investors sifted through newly-released economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 19.10 points, or 0.06 percent, to 34,466.24. The S&P 500 increased 19.63 points, or 0.47 percent, to 4,239.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 108.58 points, or 0.78 percent, to 14,020.33.

Seven of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with health care up 1.69 percent, leading the laggards. Financials slipped 1.12 percent, the worst-performing group.

U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly higher with seven of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on an upbeat note.

The above market moves came despite a key inflation report showing a larger-than-expected increase in price pressures in the United States.

The headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.6 percent in May for a 5.0-percent year-over-year gain, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday, above the 4.7-percent consensus.

The core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.7 percent for a 3.8 percent yearly increase, also above the market consensus.

"There's plenty of evidence this was another month of transitory increases, but the Fed's patience will be tested yet again at the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting next week," Chris Low and Will Compernolle, economists at FHN Financial, said in a note on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a separate report released by the Labor Department showed that U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, decreased by 9,000 to 376,000 in the week ending June 5, marking a fresh pandemic-era low.