Wall St ends mixed as investors digest data, forecasts

Wall Street stocks have ended mixed, with gains in Cisco Systems following an upbeat forecast while UnitedHealth tumbled after a report of a criminal investigation into the insurer.

The S&P 500 has more than recovered from a deep selloff in April triggered by US President Donald Trump's global trade war as investors bet his administration will reach deals to roll back steep tariffs that economists worry will drive up consumer prices.

"People think there are going to be deals, so they are just getting ahead of that, and they don't want to be short stocks. 'Deal anticipation' is what I'd call it," said Dennis Dick, a trader at Triple D Trading.

Cisco Systems jumped almost 5.0 per cent after the networking company raised its annual forecast, driven by the artificial intelligence boom.

UnitedHealth Group plunged 11 per cent to a five-year low after the Wall Street Journal reported the US Department of Justice was conducting a criminal investigation into the company for possible Medicare fraud.

UnitedHealth said it had not been informed of a criminal probe by federal prosecutors.

Walmart eased 0.5 per cent after the heavyweight retailer warned it would start raising prices later this month due to tariffs, even after its first-quarter US comparable sales beat expectations.

Rival retailer Amazon, also heavily exposed to Trump's tariffs, dropped 2.4 per cent and weighed on the Nasdaq.

Walmart declined to provide a second-quarter profit outlook, joining other companies across sectors that have tweaked or pulled their forecasts, signalling that corporations are hunkering down due to tariff-related uncertainty.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.41 per cent to end at 5,916.93 points, the Nasdaq declined 0.18 per cent to 19,112.32 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.65 per cent to 42,322.75 points.

Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, eight rose, led by utilities, up 2.1 per cent, followed by a 2.0 per cent gain in consumer staples.

The S&P 500 remains about 4.0 per cent below its record high close on February 19.

Earlier in the day, data showed US retail sales growth slowed in April while a separate report showed producer prices unexpectedly fell last month.

That followed a relatively tame consumer price reading earlier in the week.

"We're still waiting for that inflation pop. It's not here yet, but we're still waiting," said John Augustine, chief investment officer of Huntington National Bank.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 2.9-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 15 new highs and six new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 51 new highs and 107 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was relatively heavy, with 17.9 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 16.8 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.