Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Technology, Industrials and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.17%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.42%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which rose 1.93% or 2.47 points to trade at 130.37 at the close. Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) added 1.65% or 3.65 points to end at 224.44 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 1.38% or 3.44 points to 253.34 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which lost 2.09% or 2.86 points to trade at 133.68 in late trade. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) declined 1.42% or 0.79 points to end at 54.79 and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) shed 1.36% or 2.07 points to 150.22.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP) which rose 5.06% to 231.07, Align Technology Inc (NASDAQ:ALGN) which was up 4.16% to settle at 575.57 and PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) which gained 3.58% to close at 264.74.
The worst performers were Constellation Brands Inc Class A (NYSE:STZ) which was down 4.67% to 223.98 in late trade, Lumen Technologies Inc (NYSE:LUMN) which lost 4.30% to settle at 12.90 and ViacomCBS Inc (NASDAQ:VIAC) which was down 3.65% to 42.29 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Anchiano Therapeutics Ltd (NASDAQ:CMMB) which rose 111.02% to 54.970, ORBCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:ORBC) which was up 52.05% to settle at 11.51 and Vericity Inc (NASDAQ:VERY) which gained 43.74% to close at 14.46.
The worst performers were Utime Ltd (NASDAQ:UTME) which was down 47.55% to 43.10 in late trade, Astrotech Corp (NASDAQ:ASTC) which lost 29.86% to settle at 1.550 and Franklin Wireless Corp (NASDAQ:FKWL) which was down 13.99% to 17.3 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1876 to 1202 and 95 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2041 rose and 1139 declined, while 104 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.22% to 16.95 a new 52-week low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.93% or 16.15 to $1757.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.12% or 0.07 to hit $59.84 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.27% or 0.17 to trade at $63.33 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.37% to 1.1914, while USD/JPY fell 0.52% to 109.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.41% at 92.090.