The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 28.42 points, or 0.11 percent, to 26,805.53. The S&P 500 increased 5.77 points, or 0.19 percent, to 3,010.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 66.00 points, or 0.81 percent, to 8,185.80.
Six of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded higher around market close, with the information technology sector up 1.48 percent, leading the winners.
The majority of the 30 blue-chip stocks in the Dow extended losses around the closing bell, with shares of 3M and Johnson & Johnson down 4.07 percent and 1.85 percent, leading the laggards.
Shares of Tesla surged 17.67 percent, after the electric vehicle maker reported unexpectedly high quarterly profit.
The company also said in its quarterly update that its gigafactory in Shanghai was built in 10 months and is ready for production.
Shares of Microsoft rose 1.97 percent, after the company posted stronger-than-expected earnings for the third quarter, as boosted by its robust cloud business, whose revenues jumped 59 percent year over year.
On the economic front, new orders for manufactured durable goods in September decreased 1.1 percent to 248.2 billion U.S. dollars, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Thursday.
Shipments of manufactured durable goods in September, down three consecutive months, decreased 0.4 percent to 252.5 billion dollars, following a 0.1 percent decrease in August.
U.S. jobless claims fell in the week ending October 19, said the Labor Department on Thursday.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits reached 212,000 last week, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level.
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