Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.57%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.64%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 2.72% or 3.25 points to trade at 122.69 at the close. Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) added 2.07% or 0.91 points to end at 44.92 and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) was up 1.64% or 0.85 points to 52.93 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which lost 1.47% or 0.69 points to trade at 46.15 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) declined 1.06% or 3.96 points to end at 371.00 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) shed 0.50% or 1.07 points to 211.76.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Skyworks Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:SWKS) which rose 5.18% to 84.89, Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which was up 4.84% to settle at 280.48 and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which gained 4.80% to close at 8.96.
The worst performers were Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) which was down 3.47% to 16.13 in late trade, NetApp Inc (NASDAQ:NTAP) which lost 3.10% to settle at 49.78 and Kroger Company (NYSE:KR) which was down 2.81% to 23.84 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Ra Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:RARX) which rose 101.10% to 45.64, Superconductor Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SCON) which was up 45.16% to settle at 0.3150 and OncoSec Medical Inc (NASDAQ:ONCS) which gained 34.76% to close at 2.210.
The worst performers were Forescout Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:FSCT) which was down 37.33% to 24.57 in late trade, Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives Inc (NASDAQ:IEA) which lost 32.48% to settle at 2.91 and Genprex Inc (NASDAQ:GNPX) which was down 22.86% to 0.4821 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1724 to 1130 and 95 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1404 rose and 1203 declined, while 98 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.58% to 17.60.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.93% or 14.10 to $1498.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 2.41% or 1.27 to hit $53.86 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.03 to trade at $59.55 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.01% to 1.1005, while USD/JPY fell 0.05% to 107.91.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.40% at 98.420.