Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.22%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.02%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 1.91% or 3.19 points to trade at 170.61 at the close. EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD) added 1.31% or 0.89 points to end at 69.03 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 1.30% or 0.48 points to 37.45 in late trade.
Biggest losers included McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which lost 1.15% or 1.33 points to trade at 114.08 in late trade. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) declined 0.77% or 0.40 points to end at 51.63 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shed 0.58% or 0.69 points to 117.57.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) which rose 5.17% to 74.28, WestRock Co (NYSE:WRK) which was up 3.73% to settle at 46.73 and Level 3 Communications Inc (NYSE:LVLT) which gained 2.36% to close at 46.16.
The worst performers were Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which was down 5.43% to 12.90 in late trade, HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) which lost 4.39% to settle at 14.48 and EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) which was down 4.11% to 67.48 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Contravir Pharmaceut (NASDAQ:CTRV) which rose 44.12% to 1.9600, Neonode Inc (NASDAQ:NEON) which was up 24.87% to settle at 1.230 and The First Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:FBMS) which gained 20.71% to close at 21.51.
The worst performers were Taylor Devices Inc (NASDAQ:TAYD) which was down 33.20% to 13.20 in late trade, Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT) which lost 29.60% to settle at 2.830 and Ultrapetrol Ltd (NASDAQ:ULTR) which was down 22.61% to 0.1780 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1582 to 1549 and 97 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1247 rose and 1245 declined, while 111 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.24% to 16.15.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.37% or 4.65 to $1252.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.24% or 0.12 to hit $50.32 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.04 to trade at $51.99 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.75% to 1.0975, while USD/JPY rose 0.46% to 104.19.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.54% at 98.06.