Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Oil & Gas and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.18%, while the S&P 500 index added 1.10%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 4.59% or 9.08 points to trade at 207.10 at the close. Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) added 3.98% or 1.53 points to end at 39.98 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) was up 3.49% or 3.30 points to 97.96 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Raytheon Technologies Corp (NYSE:RTX), which lost 1.07% or 0.66 points to trade at 61.06 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) declined 1.02% or 1.81 points to end at 174.88 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) shed 0.98% or 0.58 points to 58.51.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were National Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) which rose 9.83% to 12.29, Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) which was up 7.67% to settle at 217.32 and Noble Energy Inc (NASDAQ:NBL) which gained 6.26% to close at 9.84.
The worst performers were Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) which was down 4.19% to 17.17 in late trade, Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) which lost 4.13% to settle at 6.50 and Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN) which was down 3.76% to 15.37 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Professional Diversity Network Inc (NASDAQ:IPDN) which rose 142.76% to 3.6900, Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:EKSO) which was up 135.32% to settle at 7.2950 and Puhui Wealth Investment Management Co Ltd (NASDAQ:PHCF) which gained 105.79% to close at 6.750.
The worst performers were Xeris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:XERS) which was down 48.78% to 2.72 in late trade, Urban Tea Inc (NASDAQ:MYT) which lost 36.36% to settle at 0.7000 and Extraction Oil & Gas Inc (OTC:XOGAQ) which was down 33.79% to 0.179 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1873 to 977 and 77 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1811 rose and 896 declined, while 51 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.79% to 32.22.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.07% or 1.30 to $1773.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 2.74% or 1.04 to hit $39.05 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.07% or 0.03 to trade at $41.44 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.01% to 1.1218, while USD/JPY rose 0.00% to 107.19.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.23% at 97.350.