Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.43% to hit a new 1-month high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.80%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.50%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), which rose 5.98% or 7.42 points to trade at 131.49 at the close. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) added 3.02% or 3.11 points to end at 106.06 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) was up 2.24% or 1.08 points to 49.38 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN), which lost 6.82% or 17.58 points to trade at 240.09 in late trade. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) declined 0.30% or 0.68 points to end at 225.80 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) shed 0.27% or 0.35 points to 129.71.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which rose 12.31% to 3.74, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which was up 8.75% to settle at 11.18 and DXC Technology Co (NYSE:DXC) which gained 8.41% to close at 19.99.
The worst performers were Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) which was down 6.82% to 240.09 in late trade, BorgWarner Inc (NYSE:BWA) which lost 3.49% to settle at 40.09 and Baxter International Inc (NYSE:BAX) which was down 3.43% to 78.85 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Consumer Portfolio Services Inc (NASDAQ:CPSS) which rose 40.84% to 4.69, Alphatec Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ATEC) which was up 36.92% to settle at 9.42 and Scynexis Inc (NASDAQ:SCYX) which gained 33.99% to close at 6.150.
The worst performers were Cytokinetics Inc (NASDAQ:CYTK) which was down 42.14% to 16.00 in late trade, Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT) which lost 34.56% to settle at 1.9500 and Westwater Resources Inc (NASDAQ:WWR) which was down 33.45% to 7.800 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2365 to 724 and 96 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1878 rose and 1019 declined, while 67 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.06% to 26.36.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.39% or 7.45 to $1898.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 3.33% or 1.33 to hit $41.28 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $43.43 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.04% to 1.1753, while USD/JPY rose 0.02% to 106.03.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 93.623.