By Dan Strumpf And Saumya Vaishampayan 

U.S. stocks eased Thursday, though the Nasdaq Composite resumed its march toward record territory, as investors looked to another muted reading on inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 15 points, or 0.1%, to 18209, pulling back from Wednesday's record close. The S&P 500 shed three points, or 0.1%, to 2111.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 13 points, or 0.3%, to 4980--less than 2% away from its record close of 5048.62 last reached 15 years ago.

Trading activity was muted, as the fourth-quarter earnings season drew to a close and fears over Greece's bailout continued to recede. Tom Carter, managing director at JonesTrading, said the absence of market-moving headlines was prompting some investors to curtail winning bets.

"They look at their portfolio and there are stocks that have ripped, that have done nicely," he said. That leads them to think, "I'm going take some money off the table and I'm going to redeploy it."

European stocks and bonds closed higher as the European Central Bank prepares to launch its bond-buying program. The bank will buy EUR60 billion (around $68 billion) of bonds each month until September 2016 under the program, which starts next month. Germany's DAX rose 1% to a fresh record close, while and France's CAC 40 added 0.6% and finished at its highest level since June 2008.

Easy monetary policy has helped stocks rally since the financial crisis, as low interest rates make returns on stocks appear more attractive than those on competing assets. While the Federal Reserve ended its bond-buying program last year and is looking to an eventual increase in rates, many investors say that aggressive stimulus efforts from other major central banks should help keep global rates low.

"Markets, especially on the equity side, have become dependent on central bank stimulus," said Chris Gaffney, senior market strategist at EverBank Wealth Management. "Keeping interest rates low and putting additional liquidity in the market certainly creates an environment that's very good for corporations," he said, which leads to better earnings and stock-market gains.

Meanwhile, trading activity and market volatility have declined in recent weeks as investors await other market moving news. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, hovered around it lowest level since early December, recently edging up to 13.86.

"Once you come off that cycle of big macro headlines, you sit around and wait for what's next," said Larry Weiss, head of trading at Instinet. Stocks "are kind of range bound," he said.

The Dow industrials hit its third record close for the year on Wednesday, adding 0.1% to 18224.57. The S&P 500 lost 0.1% to 2113.86, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.98 point to 4967.14, halting a 10-session streak of gains.

While investors continue to bet on when the Fed will raise short-term rates, which have been held near zero since December 2008, Mr. Gaffney expects an increase to come this year. He said he is encouraged by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s plans to boost wages for its U.S. employees, which could add pressure on other companies to do the same. On Wednesday, TJX Cos. announced it also would increase wages for its U.S. workers, following Wal-Mart's lead.

A pickup in wages could make the Fed more comfortable about raising rates this year, he added.

In economic news, the consumer-price index fell 0.7% in January from December, the Labor Department said Thursday. Prices slipped 0.1% from a year earlier, marking the first year-over-year decline since October 2009. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected a 0.6% decline in January from December.

Jobless claims in the week ended Feb. 21 rose by 31,000 to 313,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected 290,000 new claims.

Separately, orders for durable goods climbed 2.8% in Januaryfrom a month earlier, more than the 0.6% increase expected by economists.

In other markets, gold futures rose 0.9% to $1211.80 an ounce. Crude-oil futures fell 2.1% to $49.90 a barrel. Treasury prices fell, lifting the 10-year yield to 1.977% from 1.968% on Wednesday.

Among individual stocks, Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $2.6 billion to settle U.S. claims linked to the sale of mortgage bonds. Shares fell 0.9%.

Salesforce.com Inc. posted a 26% jump in quarterly revenue from a year ago, driven in part by international sales. Deferred revenue, a closely watched metric for the company, rose 32% in its fiscal fourth quarter. Shares advanced 11%.

Write to Dan Strumpf at daniel.strumpf@wsj.com and Saumya Vaishampayan at saumya.vaishampayan@wsj.com

Access Investor Kit for The Dow Chemical Co.

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US2605431038

Access Investor Kit for The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US6311031081

Access Investor Kit for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US9311421039

Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more Nasdaq Charts.
Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more Nasdaq Charts.