Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.63%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.86%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 2.95%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which rose 5.84% or 5.98 points to trade at 108.30 at the close. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) added 4.66% or 6.26 points to end at 140.52 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 4.46% or 1.89 points to 44.31 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which lost 1.72% or 0.99 points to trade at 56.43 in late trade. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) declined 1.15% or 2.04 points to end at 175.31 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) shed 0.82% or 0.58 points to 69.96.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) which rose 15.01% to 79.40, International Paper Company (NYSE:IP) which was up 10.25% to settle at 43.76 and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) which gained 9.90% to close at 8.99.
The worst performers were Align Technology Inc (NASDAQ:ALGN) which was down 20.20% to 232.07 in late trade, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which lost 15.45% to settle at 19.270 and Equifax Inc (NYSE:EFX) which was down 14.78% to 98.31 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were MoSys Inc (NASDAQ:MOSY) which rose 50.05% to 0.3810, Erytech Pharma SA ADR (NASDAQ:ERYP) which was up 22.47% to settle at 8.12 and Wilhelmina (NASDAQ:WHLM) which gained 19.47% to close at 6.75.
The worst performers were National American University (NASDAQ:NAUH) which was down 30.00% to 0.770 in late trade, Borqs Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:BRQS) which lost 23.53% to settle at 3.25 and Novume Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:NVMM) which was down 20.26% to 1.85 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2203 to 878 and 77 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1873 rose and 760 declined, while 93 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.00% to 24.22.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.50% or 6.20 to $1234.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.24% or 0.16 to hit $66.98 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.62% or 0.47 to trade at $76.64 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.19% to 1.1370, while USD/JPY rose 0.18% to 112.45.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.22% at 96.39.