Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Utilities and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.33%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.36%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.33%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which rose 3.04% or 0.93 points to trade at 31.48 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) added 2.76% or 0.88 points to end at 32.81 and Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) was up 2.27% or 2.88 points to 129.87 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Visa Inc (NYSE:V), which lost 3.35% or 2.57 points to trade at 74.17 in late trade. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) added 0.13% or 0.07 points to end at 55.20 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) gained 0.25% or 0.32 points to 127.69.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) which rose 16.83% to 113.49, Paychex Inc (NASDAQ:PAYX) which was up 5.99% to settle at 59.50 and Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) which gained 5.91% to close at 66.53.
The worst performers were Hanesbrands Inc (NYSE:HBI) which was down 4.45% to 25.13 in late trade, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) which lost 4.42% to settle at 88.06 and Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ:TSCO) which was down 4.19% to 91.18 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Transition Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TTHI) which rose 110.00% to 1.4700, Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) which was up 33.17% to settle at 0.4661 and Catalyst Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CBIO) which gained 16.92% to close at 1.520.
The worst performers were Kingtone Wirelessinfo Solution (NASDAQ:KONE) which was down 36.45% to 1.970 in late trade, Trio Merger Corp (NASDAQ:SAEX) which lost 23.75% to settle at 0.122 and Intercloud (NASDAQ:ICLD) which was down 23.08% to 0.7000 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2547 to 777 and 22 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1811 rose and 782 declined, while 61 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.21% to 15.94.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.14% or 1.85 to $1325.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 2.99% or 1.49 to hit $48.39 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 2.96% or 1.52 to trade at $49.80 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.21% to 1.1101, while USD/JPY rose 0.43% to 103.27.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.30% at 95.98.