Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.81%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.26%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), which rose 3.22% or 4.16 points to trade at 133.42 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 2.40% or 3.72 points to end at 158.95 and DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) was up 1.70% or 1.20 points to 72.16 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which lost 0.52% or 0.22 points to trade at 43.09 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 0.47% or 1.25 points to end at 262.15 and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) shed 0.29% or 0.44 points to 153.52.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which rose 19.78% to 3.150, Scana Corporation (NYSE:SCG) which was up 9.30% to settle at 39.66 and TechnipFMC PLC (NYSE:FTI) which gained 4.88% to close at 30.51.
The worst performers were Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ:SRCL) which was down 18.02% to 61.41 in late trade, Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) which lost 5.05% to settle at 35.32 and Synopsys Inc (NASDAQ:SNPS) which was down 3.71% to 85.18 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were My Size Inc (NASDAQ:MYSZ) which rose 39.97% to 1.82, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (NASDAQ:AAWW) which was up 18.31% to settle at 65.37 and Allied Healthcare Products Inc (NASDAQ:AHPI) which gained 16.99% to close at 2.6790.
The worst performers were Advaxis Inc (NASDAQ:ADXS) which was down 27.29% to 1.82 in late trade, SpartanNash Co (NASDAQ:SPTN) which lost 23.05% to settle at 17.03 and Applied Opt (NASDAQ:AAOI) which was down 21.52% to 27.11 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1723 to 1397 and 30 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1388 fell and 1103 advanced, while 119 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.15% to 20.05.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.05% or 0.70 to $1332.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.59% or 0.98 to hit $62.66 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.27% or 0.83 to trade at $66.25 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.33% to 1.2324, while USD/JPY fell 0.99% to 106.70.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.36% at 89.71.