Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Technology and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.65%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.85%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 2.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which rose 4.69% or 7.78 points to trade at 173.57 at the close. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) added 3.15% or 3.07 points to end at 100.52 and Visa Inc Class A (NYSE:V) was up 2.74% or 6.18 points to 231.78 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 0.80% or 0.25 points to trade at 30.99 in late trade. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 0.26% or 0.31 points to end at 117.68 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) gained 0.33% or 0.52 points to 156.03.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ:ZION) which rose 19.22% to 23.76, Comerica Inc (NYSE:CMA) which was up 16.76% to settle at 36.44 and Live Nation Entertainment Inc (NYSE:LYV) which gained 15.04% to close at 77.16.
The worst performers were Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc (NYSE:BIO) which was down 16.72% to 385.24 in late trade, Monolithic Power Systems Inc (NASDAQ:MPWR) which lost 10.39% to settle at 411.27 and EPAM Systems Inc (NYSE:EPAM) which was down 10.33% to 242.47 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Nanobiotix (NASDAQ:NBTX) which rose 229.05% to 6.68, PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) which was up 81.70% to settle at 5.76 and Baosheng Media Group Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:BAOS) which gained 62.01% to close at 9.98.
The worst performers were Soligenix Inc (NASDAQ:SNGX) which was down 51.75% to 1.10 in late trade, TOP Financial Group Ltd (NASDAQ:TOP) which lost 37.13% to settle at 10.99 and Aptinyx Inc (NASDAQ:APTX) which was down 32.32% to 0.08 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2533 to 451 and 83 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2637 rose and 928 declined, while 150 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 14.34% to 17.21.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.49% or 30.60 to $2,025.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 4.08% or 2.80 to hit $71.36 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 3.85% or 2.79 to trade at $75.29 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.06% to 1.10, while USD/JPY rose 0.43% to 134.85.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 101.05.