Wall Street closing higher Thursday

U.S. stocks ended higher Thursday, even after the release of several weak economic reports. In world economic news, European markets ended mixed as Asian markets closed with losses. In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department reported that its consumer price index (CPI) rose only 0.1 percent in January, despite cold weather pushing up the cost of natural gas, electricity, and heating oil by the most in more than five years. The Labor Department also reported that initial jobless claims declined by 3,000 to 336,000 last week. Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims rose 1,750 to 338,500. The dollar rose versus the Yen, and the Pound, but fell versus the Euro. Light sweet crude oil for March delivery rose to $103.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures rose to $1,323.10 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 92.67, or 0.6 percent, to 16,133.23. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 11.03, or 0.6 percent, to 1,839.78. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 29.60, or 0.7 percent, to 4,267.55.