Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.28% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.49%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 2.09% or 1.27 points to trade at 62.07 at the close. 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) added 1.87% or 3.22 points to end at 175.37 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was up 1.77% or 1.59 points to 91.58 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which lost 1.65% or 5.50 points to trade at 328.00 in late trade. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) declined 1.18% or 1.19 points to end at 99.96 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) shed 0.90% or 0.43 points to 47.45.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which rose 7.63% to 50.21, Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) which was up 5.39% to settle at 21.71 and Newell Brands Inc (NASDAQ:NWL) which gained 4.80% to close at 19.86.
The worst performers were CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX) which was down 6.15% to 92.71 in late trade, ABIOMED Inc (NASDAQ:ABMD) which lost 3.86% to settle at 162.89 and F5 Networks Inc (NASDAQ:FFIV) which was down 3.74% to 138.32 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Dropcar Inc (NASDAQ:DCAR) which rose 102.39% to 1.200, Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MRNS) which was up 44.67% to settle at 2.17 and Cortexyme Inc (NASDAQ:CRTX) which gained 39.50% to close at 66.08.
The worst performers were Stealth BioTherapeutics Corp (NASDAQ:MITO) which was down 65.33% to 4.75 in late trade, Valeritas Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:VLRX) which lost 60.84% to settle at 0.6500 and Abeona Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ABEO) which was down 37.70% to 3.115 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1676 to 1145 and 86 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1485 rose and 1170 declined, while 86 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.08% to 12.51.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.16% or 2.35 to $1482.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 1.32% or 0.81 to hit $60.37 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.75% or 0.50 to trade at $66.04 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.38% to 1.1078, while USD/JPY rose 0.07% to 109.44.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.34% at 97.280.