Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Telecoms and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.54%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.52%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), which rose 3.57% or 2.53 points to trade at 73.40 at the close. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) added 3.53% or 3.51 points to end at 102.88 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was up 3.31% or 3.36 points to 104.79 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which lost 1.79% or 4.56 points to trade at 249.67 in late trade. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) declined 1.18% or 3.35 points to end at 281.16 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shed 0.96% or 1.12 points to 115.75.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Align Technology Inc (NASDAQ:ALGN) which rose 34.97% to 453.23, Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) which was up 13.65% to settle at 21.15 and Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) which gained 9.17% to close at 66.16.
The worst performers were Cincinnati Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CINF) which was down 8.96% to 76.74 in late trade, Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ:TSCO) which lost 8.11% to settle at 137.02 and Citrix Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CTXS) which was down 7.12% to 126.65 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Ever-Glory International Group Inc (NASDAQ:EVK) which rose 126.09% to 2.600, TuanChe ADR (NASDAQ:TC) which was up 98.36% to settle at 6.030 and KBS Fashion Group Ltd (NASDAQ:KBSF) which gained 59.59% to close at 3.910.
The worst performers were InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NVIV) which was down 47.33% to 0.6000 in late trade, Insignia Systems Inc (NASDAQ:ISIG) which lost 46.86% to settle at 0.9300 and Marin Software Inc (NASDAQ:MRIN) which was down 43.62% to 2.120 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2093 to 970 and 90 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1852 rose and 1056 declined, while 85 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.88% to 28.11.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.20% or 23.10 to $1906.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.45% or 0.58 to hit $40.61 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.02 to trade at $42.39 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.04% to 1.1821, while USD/JPY rose 0.03% to 104.85.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.38% at 92.950.