U.S. stocks ended mixed on Friday as the unemployment rate dipped to 4.5 percent in February.

In the closing trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15.62, or 0.13 percent, to 12,276.32. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.96, or 0.07 percent, at 1,402.85, while the Nasdaq composite index lost 0.18, or 0.01 percent, to 2,387.55.

The Labor Department reported on Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent in February, a slight decline from the 4.6 percent in January.

"Add to that a lower unemployment rate, upward revisions to December and January payrolls, earnings growth a bit above expectations, and the report doesn't look at all bad," said Nigel Gault, U.S. Economist of Global Insight, "the report gives no reason for the Fed to do anything but stick with its extended hold on interest rates."

Separately, U.S. trade deficit fell 3.8 percent in January to 59.1 billion U.S. dollars as the country's exports surged to an all-time high, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.

Source: Xinhua