Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.84%, while the S&P 500 index added 1.23%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which rose 2.31% or 4.38 points to trade at 193.97 at the close. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) added 1.88% or 2.90 points to end at 157.18 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 1.64% or 5.49 points to 340.54 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which lost 2.65% or 3.00 points to trade at 110.37 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) declined 0.32% or 0.67 points to end at 211.16 and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) shed 0.19% or 0.25 points to 133.81.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which rose 9.67% to 18.82, SolarEdge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SEDG) which was up 5.94% to settle at 269.05 and Enphase Energy Inc (NASDAQ:ENPH) which gained 5.49% to close at 167.48.
The worst performers were Newell Brands Inc (NASDAQ:NWL) which was down 2.90% to 8.70 in late trade, Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) which lost 2.65% to settle at 110.37 and Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) which was down 1.90% to 63.11 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Baudax Bio Inc (NASDAQ:BXRX) which rose 124.91% to 1.17, VBI Vaccines Inc (NASDAQ:VBIV) which was up 75.00% to settle at 3.29 and Renalytix AI (NASDAQ:RNLX) which gained 41.06% to close at 2.92.
The worst performers were Paltalk Inc (NASDAQ:PALT) which was down 33.69% to 1.87 in late trade, Surgalign Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SRGA) which lost 32.98% to settle at 0.18 and Apyx Medical Inc (NASDAQ:APYX) which was down 24.93% to 5.03 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2069 to 899 and 96 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1894 rose and 1564 declined, while 188 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.37% to 13.59.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.42% or 8.10 to $1,926.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.87% or 0.61 to hit $70.47 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.94% or 0.70 to trade at $75.21 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.41% to 1.09, while USD/JPY fell 0.30% to 144.34.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.39% at 102.61.