New York, Oct 20 (IANS): US stocks ended mildly higher, as Wall Street pondered over downbeat quarterly earnings reports after China's gross domestic product (GDP) data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 14.57 points, or 0.08 percent, to 17,230.54. The S&P 500 edged up 0.55 point, or 0.03 percent, to 2,033.66. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 18.78 points, or 0.38 percent, to 4,905.47, Xinhua reported.

Shares of Morgan Stanley tumbled 4.80 percent to $32.32 apiece on Monday following the release of its lacklustre quarterly results.

The bank reported net income for the third quarter 2015 of $1.0 billion on revenues of $7.8 billion, compared with net income of $1.7 billion on revenues of $8.9 billion a year ago.

Hasbro Inc. shares slumped 7.01 percent to $72.33 apiece after the company delivered weaker-than-expected quarterly revenues.

The US toy maker announced that its net revenues for the third quarter 2015 were $1.47 billion, flat with $1.47 billion in the same period of 2014.

Latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the third quarter of 2015 are expected to decline 3.9 percent year-on-year, while revenue growth is forecast to decrease 3.7 percent.

Overseas, China's economy posted a 6.9 percent growth year-on-year in the third quarter of 2015, lower than 7 percent in the first half of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Monday.

This is the first time the country's quarterly growth rate has dropped under 7 percent since the second quarter of 2009.

Chinese shares benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.14 percent to end at 3,386.7 points, following the release of the weak GDP figure.

European equities finished mixed on Monday as investors digested the latest economic figures out of China. Germany's benchmark DAX index at Frankfurt Stock Exchange rose 0.59 percent, while British benchmark FTSE 100 Index fell 0.40 percent.