Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Telecoms and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.25%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.43%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.65%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 0.92% or 0.46 points to trade at 50.62 at the close. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) added 0.84% or 0.66 points to end at 79.66 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 0.83% or 0.43 points to 52.32 in late trade.
Biggest losers included McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which lost 0.42% or 0.52 points to trade at 123.25 in late trade. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) declined 0.17% or 0.12 points to end at 71.96 and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) shed 0.14% or 0.10 points to 70.75.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance (NASDAQ:ULTA) which rose 9.11% to 233.15, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) which was up 5.00% to settle at 18.26 and Viacom B Inc (NASDAQ:VIAB) which gained 4.02% to close at 44.24.
The worst performers were CF Industries Holdings Inc (NYSE:CF) which was down 4.35% to 27.70 in late trade, Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) which lost 2.05% to settle at 12.90 and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which was down 1.85% to 11.14 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were SunOpta Inc (NASDAQ:STKL) which rose 26.70% to 4.84, pSivida Corp (NASDAQ:PSDV) which was up 24.19% to settle at 3.850 and Ossen Innovation Co Ltd (NASDAQ:OSN) which gained 18.57% to close at 0.8300.
The worst performers were Hercules Offshore Inc (NASDAQ:HERO) which was down 47.42% to 1.0200 in late trade, Delta Technology Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:DELT) which lost 28.49% to settle at 0.5220 and China Recycling Energy Corp (NASDAQ:CREG) which was down 18.90% to 2.0000 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2138 to 1171 and 31 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1725 rose and 829 declined, while 72 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.53% to 13.09 a new 6-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.75% or 9.15 to $1211.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.08% or 0.04 to hit $49.52 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.15 to trade at $49.44 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.72% to 1.1113, while USD/JPY rose 0.52% to 110.34.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.62% at 95.73.