Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.15%, while the S&P 500 index added 1.42%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 2.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Visa Inc (NYSE:V), which rose 4.73% or 6.33 points to trade at 140.06 at the close. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) added 3.67% or 2.60 points to end at 73.50 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 3.60% or 1.59 points to 45.71 in late trade.
Biggest losers included JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), which lost 1.09% or 1.18 points to trade at 106.95 in late trade. The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) declined 0.53% or 0.66 points to end at 123.65 and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) shed 0.56% or 0.66 points to 117.77.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which rose 5.75% to 339.56, Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ:ADSK) which was up 5.57% to settle at 138.18 and Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU) which gained 5.55% to close at 211.82.
The worst performers were PNC Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:PNC) which was down 5.58% to 124.26 in late trade, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which lost 3.34% to settle at 12.74 and Signet Jewelers Ltd (NYSE:SIG) which was down 3.20% to 58.03 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Corium International Inc (NASDAQ:CORI) which rose 52.83% to 12.700, Auris Medical Holding AG (NASDAQ:EARS) which was up 44.12% to settle at 0.980 and Youngevity International Inc (NASDAQ:YGYI) which gained 40.74% to close at 13.300.
The worst performers were Immune Design Corp (NASDAQ:IMDZ) which was down 33.69% to 1.85 in late trade, Intellipharmaceutics International Inc (NASDAQ:IPCI) which lost 21.00% to settle at 0.640 and Kelly Services B Inc (NASDAQ:KELYB) which was down 20.00% to 17.600 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1759 to 1326 and 70 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1549 rose and 1079 declined, while 92 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 13.83% to 21.31.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.53% or 6.50 to $1221.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.75% or 0.53 to hit $71.50 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.30% or 0.24 to trade at $80.50 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.31% to 1.1557, while USD/JPY rose 0.03% to 112.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 94.96.