Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, Oil & Gas and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.39%, while the S&P 500 index added 1.60%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.77%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which rose 4.21% or 1.93 points to trade at 47.73 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 2.54% or 2.33 points to end at 94.06 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 2.47% or 1.06 points to 44.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), which lost 0.32% or 0.43 points to trade at 133.15 in late trade. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) declined 0.07% or 0.01 points to end at 14.49 and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) gained 0.13% or 0.12 points to 92.89.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) which rose 10.54% to 18.14, Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN) which was up 6.54% to settle at 53.56 and Advance Auto Parts Inc (NYSE:AAP) which gained 5.28% to close at 116.32.
The worst performers were General Mills Inc (NYSE:GIS) which was down 3.59% to 52.98 in late trade, Scana Corporation (NYSE:SCG) which lost 1.60% to settle at 39.29 and Envision Healthcare Corp (NYSE:EVHC) which was down 1.25% to 37.19 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were NII Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NIHD) which rose 71.95% to 1.030, Vicor Corporation (NASDAQ:VICR) which was up 37.23% to settle at 25.80 and Adamis Pharma (NASDAQ:ADMP) which gained 31.37% to close at 3.35.
The worst performers were Wecast Network Inc (NASDAQ:SSC) which was down 39.29% to 1.700 in late trade, Tenax Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TENX) which lost 25.74% to settle at 0.249 and Data I/O Corporation (NASDAQ:DAIO) which was down 24.66% to 8.310 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2505 to 584 and 108 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1845 rose and 697 declined, while 113 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 11.91% to 16.49.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.12% or 1.60 to $1331.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.21% or 0.76 to hit $63.53 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.36% or 0.90 to trade at $67.29 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.21% to 1.2304, while USD/JPY rose 0.04% to 106.79.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.17% at 89.81.