Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.28%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.58%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), which rose 2.71% or 2.95 points to trade at 111.79 at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) added 2.61% or 5.21 points to end at 204.53 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) was up 1.08% or 0.82 points to 76.64 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 3.22% or 1.64 points to trade at 49.27 in late trade. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) declined 1.79% or 1.00 points to end at 54.73 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shed 1.14% or 1.60 points to 139.09.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) which rose 9.70% to 15.83, Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) which was up 6.73% to settle at 47.55 and Brighthouse Financial Inc (NASDAQ:BHF) which gained 4.74% to close at 36.69.
The worst performers were Pacific Gas & Electric Co (NYSE:PCG) which was down 4.34% to 22.91 in late trade, Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) which lost 3.22% to settle at 49.27 and Patterson Companies Inc (NASDAQ:PDCO) which was down 3.17% to 22.90 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CDMO) which rose 40.00% to 5.6000, Hong Kong Highpower Technology (NASDAQ:HPJ) which was up 39.02% to settle at 4.240 and Northeast Bancorp (NASDAQ:NBN) which gained 36.40% to close at 27.58.
The worst performers were Hutchison China MediTech Ltd (NASDAQ:HCM) which was down 27.15% to 22.00 in late trade, Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB (NASDAQ:OASM) which lost 26.16% to settle at 0.990 and SSLJ.com Ltd (NASDAQ:YGTY) which was down 25.00% to 1.2600 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2176 to 842 and 21 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1937 rose and 744 declined, while 76 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.68% to 15.08.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.04% or 0.50 to $1412.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 2.07% or 1.23 to hit $58.20 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.95% or 1.28 to trade at $64.39 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.02% to 1.1370, while USD/JPY rose 0.12% to 107.91.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 95.730.