Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Basic Materials and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.44%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.42%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which rose 1.42% or 2.09 points to trade at 148.91 at the close. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) added 1.33% or 1.35 points to end at 102.53 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) was up 1.20% or 0.74 points to 62.61 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which lost 1.79% or 1.40 points to trade at 76.93 in late trade. Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) declined 0.75% or 1.82 points to end at 242.43 and Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) shed 0.42% or 0.75 points to 178.35.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Align Technology Inc (NASDAQ:ALGN) which rose 9.01% to 677.91, Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) which was up 6.33% to settle at 147.31 and Yum! Brands Inc (NYSE:YUM) which gained 6.31% to close at 130.35.
The worst performers were Citrix Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CTXS) which was down 13.61% to 98.95 in late trade, PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) which lost 6.26% to settle at 283.08 and Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) which was down 6.00% to 786.14 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Xenetic Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:XBIO) which rose 64.80% to 5.290, Intec Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ:NTEC) which was up 48.52% to settle at 13.590 and NanoVibronix Inc (NASDAQ:NAOV) which gained 26.18% to close at 2.4100.
The worst performers were Atreca Inc (NASDAQ:BCEL) which was down 40.32% to 4.900 in late trade, Forward Pharma A S (NASDAQ:FWP) which lost 30.50% to settle at 9.960 and Cassava Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:SAVA) which was down 23.89% to 102.98 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2192 to 966 and 128 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1826 rose and 1629 declined, while 175 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.33% to 17.70.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 1.57% or 28.20 to $1827.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 1.53% or 1.11 to hit $73.50 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 1.50% or 1.11 to trade at $74.98 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.38% to 1.1887, while USD/JPY fell 0.39% to 109.47.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.44% at 91.907.