A pedestrian walks past the New York Stock Exchange, in lower Manhattan Oct. 25, 2016. (Photo: AP)

NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended slightly higher on Thursday, as investors digested a batch of tepid economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43.47 points, or 0.17 percent, to 25,169.88. The S&P 500 rose 5.84 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,788.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 20.41 points, or 0.27 percent, to 7,567.72.

Seven of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded higher around the closing bell, with the real estate sector up 0.6 percent, leading the gainers.

Shares of Sanderson Farms rose nearly 3.2 percent, as the U.S. poultry producer reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter.

Yet shares of PVH Corp plunged nearly 14.9 percent, as the apparel producer missed market estimates for its first-quarter revenue.

The maker of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger also slashed its full-year guidance due to concerns over U.S.-China trade tensions.

On the economic front, U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the first quarter, according to the second estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday.

Based on more complete source data, the first-quarter reading came higher than the 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, yet was revised lower than the 3.2 percent of the first estimate issued last month.

Besides, U.S. initial claims, or the number of people applying for jobless benefits, rose to 215,000 in the week ending May 25, a slight increase of 3,000 from the previous week, said the Labor Department on Thursday.

The advance estimate of international trade deficit reached 72.1 billion U.S. dollars in April, up 200 million dollars from that of March, said the U.S. Census Bureau in its monthly advance economic indicators report released Thursday.

Exports of goods for April were 134.6 billion dollars, 5.9 billion dollars less than March exports. Imports of goods for April also fell 5.6 billion dollars to 206.7 billion dollars from March.