Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms, Utilities and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.53%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.31%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 2.51% or 1.41 points to trade at 57.50 at the close. EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD) added 1.76% or 1.16 points to end at 66.92 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 1.41% or 0.70 points to 50.39 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which lost 1.55% or 0.84 points to trade at 53.47 in late trade. Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) declined 0.61% or 0.79 points to end at 129.37 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) shed 0.12% or 0.04 points to 34.75.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Viacom B Inc (NASDAQ:VIAB) which rose 6.75% to 45.05, Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB) which was up 4.73% to settle at 22.13 and Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) which gained 4.16% to close at 19.78.
The worst performers were Pioneer Natural Resources Company (NYSE:PXD) which was down 6.07% to 152.64 in late trade, American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) which lost 4.43% to settle at 29.14 and United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which was down 4.04% to 67.01 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Globeimmune (NASDAQ:GBIM) which rose 45.38% to 2.050, Qualstar Corporation (NASDAQ:QBAK) which was up 38.23% to settle at 3.4800 and EXACT Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:EXAS) which gained 20.58% to close at 11.25.
The worst performers were Hailiang Education Group Inc (NASDAQ:HLG) which was down 20.00% to 6.00 in late trade, Tonix Pharm (NASDAQ:TNXP) which lost 19.92% to settle at 1.970 and Cavium Inc (NASDAQ:CAVM) which was down 17.50% to 39.60 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1687 to 1608 and 29 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1379 fell and 1187 advanced, while 92 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.67% to 19.40.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.37% or 4.80 to $1283.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 3.85% or 1.85 to hit $46.16 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 3.59% or 1.76 to trade at $47.21 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.24% to 1.1233, while USD/JPY fell 1.58% to 104.33.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.05% at 94.72.