Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.80%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.17%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 2.05%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which rose 3.96% or 8.33 points to trade at 218.74 at the close. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) added 2.98% or 3.80 points to end at 131.21 and Visa Inc Class A (NYSE:V) was up 2.65% or 5.65 points to 219.10 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which lost 2.39% or 1.25 points to trade at 51.11 in late trade. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) declined 1.11% or 1.97 points to end at 174.83 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) shed 0.67% or 0.42 points to 62.42.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Match Group Inc (NASDAQ:MTCH) which rose 7.80% to 102.69, EPAM Systems Inc (NYSE:EPAM) which was up 7.76% to settle at 294.38 and HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) which gained 7.55% to close at 37.09.
The worst performers were FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) which was down 3.97% to 218.93 in late trade, Cincinnati Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CINF) which lost 3.27% to settle at 127.94 and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which was down 3.05% to 56.24 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Connect Biopharma Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:CNTB) which rose 54.21% to 4.95, Rezolute Inc (NASDAQ:RZLT) which was up 52.42% to settle at 4.10 and Redbox Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:RDBX) which gained 50.28% to close at 2.69.
The worst performers were Bt Brands Inc (NASDAQ:BTBD) which was down 39.22% to 1.55 in late trade, Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:NEPT) which lost 31.63% to settle at 0.21 and Nymox Pharmaceutical Corp (NASDAQ:NYMX) which was down 28.57% to 1.35 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2099 to 1086 and 99 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2592 rose and 1223 declined, while 148 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.01% to 23.87 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.26% or 24.55 to $1,918.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.84% or 1.89 to hit $104.87 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.14% or 1.22 to trade at $107.86 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.37% to 1.10, while USD/JPY rose 0.46% to 119.14.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.25% at 98.22.