Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Healthcare and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.37%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.28%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.14%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), which rose 2.96% or 1.49 points to trade at 51.78 at the close. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) added 2.09% or 2.00 points to end at 97.71 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) was up 1.84% or 3.82 points to 211.78 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Visa Inc Class A (NYSE:V), which lost 2.58% or 5.94 points to trade at 224.18 in late trade. Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) declined 1.55% or 4.17 points to end at 264.15 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) shed 1.45% or 2.39 points to 162.05.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Quanta Services Inc (NYSE:PWR) which rose 12.06% to 114.04, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) which was up 6.70% to settle at 17.35 and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which gained 5.98% to close at 26.58.
The worst performers were Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ:ADSK) which was down 5.20% to 287.47 in late trade, Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) which lost 4.60% to settle at 43.57 and Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) which was down 2.91% to 25.68 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were AgileThought Inc (NASDAQ:AGIL) which rose 69.40% to 23.530, Sphere 3D Corp (NASDAQ:ANY) which was up 41.78% to settle at 9.400 and Data Storage Corp (NASDAQ:DTST) which gained 29.59% to close at 5.080.
The worst performers were Meten Edtechx Education Group Ltd (NASDAQ:METX) which was down 57.32% to 0.3924 in late trade, Unico American Corporation (NASDAQ:UNAM) which lost 17.39% to settle at 3.610 and Assembly Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:ASMB) which was down 16.15% to 3.270 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2030 to 1143 and 159 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2181 rose and 1304 declined, while 153 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.86% to 16.41.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.22% or 4.05 to $1811.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 1.65% or 1.13 to hit $69.72 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 1.62% or 1.16 to trade at $72.75 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.31% to 1.1874, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 109.96.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.25% at 92.222.