Wall St. ends volatile day lower, investors sell on earnings

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended lower on Thursday after a choppy session as strong economic data offset disappointing earnings reports from several companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 5.85 points, or 0.02 percent, to 23,930.83, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 5.93 points, or 0.22 percent, to 2,629.74 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 12.75 points, or 0.18 percent, to 7,088.15.

(Reporting by April Joyner; Editing by James Dalgleish)