Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.38%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.49%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which rose 4.80% or 3.00 points to trade at 65.49 at the close. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) added 3.83% or 3.38 points to end at 91.72 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 3.73% or 3.17 points to 88.18 in late trade.
Biggest losers included United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), which lost 1.92% or 2.45 points to trade at 125.03 in late trade. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) declined 0.65% or 0.65 points to end at 99.37 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) shed 0.37% or 0.30 points to 79.92.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Mattel Inc (NASDAQ:MAT) which rose 7.94% to 17.27, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which was up 6.69% to settle at 232.08 and Dollar Tree Inc (NASDAQ:DLTR) which gained 5.95% to close at 107.62.
The worst performers were Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) which was down 15.47% to 104.00 in late trade, TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) which lost 4.34% to settle at 38.31 and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) which was down 3.97% to 255.46 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were TrovaGene Inc (NASDAQ:TROV) which rose 24.47% to 0.398, Inpixon (NASDAQ:INPX) which was up 21.64% to settle at 3.7100 and Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PIRS) which gained 20.14% to close at 8.590.
The worst performers were Cenveo Inc (NASDAQ:CVO) which was down 28.85% to 0.235 in late trade, Aytu BioScience Inc (NASDAQ:AYTU) which lost 27.40% to settle at 2.0000 and Tandem Diabetes Care Inc (NASDAQ:TNDM) which was down 19.52% to 2.35 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1787 to 1347 and 97 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1489 rose and 1079 declined, while 94 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 13.54% to 28.93.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.11% or 1.50 to $1317.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 3.14% or 1.92 to hit $59.23 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 3.12% or 2.02 to trade at $62.79 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.03% to 1.2243, while USD/JPY rose 0.06% to 108.80.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 90.26.