New York, Mar 13 (IANS): US stocks closed mixed as investors digested the latest economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 96.22 points, or 0.38 percent, to 25,554.66 on Tuesday. The S&P 500 was up 8.22 points, or 0.30 percent, to 2,791.52. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 32.97 points, or 0.44 percent, to 7,591.03, Xinhua reported.

US consumer prices rose for the first time in four months in February. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, the US Labor Department said on Tuesday.

Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 1.5 percent before seasonal adjustment, said the department.

The department said indexes for shelter and food increased, and the gasoline index rose after recent declines to result in the seasonally adjusted all items increase.

In the meantime, shares of the Dow component Boeing plunged more than 6 percent on Tuesday after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that happened on Sunday.

Ethiopian Airlines confirmed that a Boeing 737 MAX 8, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, crashed shortly after taking off from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa Sunday morning, killing all 157 people onboard.

It was the second time in half a year that Boeing's best-selling aircraft had a fatal crash. In October, a Lion Air plane crashed into the sea off the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, killing all 189 people onboard.