NEW YORK, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday, as anxieties over U.S.-China trade tensions eased.

File photo: VCG

Meanwhile, Wall Street digested a batch of mixed data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 326.15 points, or 1.25 percent, to 26,362.25. The S&P 500 was up 36.64 points, or 1.27 percent, to 2,924.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 116.51 points, or 1.48 percent, to 7,973.39.

The majority of the 30 blue-chip stocks in the Dow extended gains around market close, with shares of trade-sensitive Caterpillar up over 2.5 percent, leading the gainers.

Shares of widely-regarded trade barometers Intel and Boeing also rallied 2.36 percent and 0.77 percent, respectively, among the best performers in the benchmark tally.

Ten of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded higher around the closing bell, with the energy sector up 1.85 percent, leading the winners.

Shares of Best Buy tumbled 7.99 percent, after the U.S. consumer electronics retailer posted lower-than-expected revenues and comparable store sales for the second quarter, despite its decent quarterly profit.

On the economic front, U.S. pending home sales declined in July, down from the previous two consecutive months of gains, said the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Thursday.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, dropped 2.5 percent to 105.6 last month.

"Economic uncertainty is no doubt holding back some potential demand, but what is desperately needed is more supply of moderately priced homes," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, in a statement.

The U.S. initial jobless claims increased to 215,000 last week, up 4,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Yet the 4-week moving average, seen as a key metric of labor market conditions, fell to 214,500, a decrease of 500 from the previous week's revised average.

U.S. second-quarter GDP growth was revised to an annualized rate of 2 percent, according to the second estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday.

The growth rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than the advance estimate released in July.