Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Oil & Gas and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.43%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.06%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 2.15% or 1.83 points to trade at 86.80 at the close. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) added 1.81% or 0.80 points to end at 45.11 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was up 1.41% or 4.21 points to 302.75 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Visa Inc Class A (NYSE:V), which lost 1.31% or 2.86 points to trade at 216.15 in late trade. Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) declined 0.68% or 0.42 points to end at 61.25 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) shed 0.67% or 2.11 points to 314.15.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) which rose 14.75% to 40.06, Lamb Weston Holdings Inc (NYSE:LW) which was up 7.97% to settle at 65.26 and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) which gained 5.67% to close at 228.19.
The worst performers were Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) which was down 5.40% to 48.03 in late trade, Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY) which lost 3.60% to settle at 120.95 and Discovery Inc Class A (NASDAQ:DISCA) which was down 3.53% to 23.08 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Medavail Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MDVL) which rose 64.43% to 1.41, Trevi Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TRVI) which was up 56.84% to settle at 2.98 and Momentus Inc (NASDAQ:MNTS) which gained 48.47% to close at 4.38.
The worst performers were Blue Water Vaccines Inc (NASDAQ:BWV) which was down 82.76% to 10.17 in late trade, Aptinyx Inc (NASDAQ:APTX) which lost 49.15% to settle at 1.19 and Integrated Media Technology Ltd (NASDAQ:IMTE) which was down 36.11% to 13.11 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1740 to 1455 and 123 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2287 fell and 1541 advanced, while 215 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.49% to 21.55.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.45% or 8.60 to $1,931.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.74% or 0.71 to hit $96.94 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.21% or 0.21 to trade at $101.28 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.20% to 1.09, while USD/JPY rose 0.17% to 124.00.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 99.81.