Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Telecoms and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.85%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.95%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), which rose 4.31% or 4.50 points to trade at 109.00 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) added 4.13% or 2.41 points to end at 60.74 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was up 3.98% or 13.29 points to 347.10 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which lost 0.66% or 1.49 points to trade at 223.22 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 0.58% or 1.92 points to end at 327.37 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) gained 0.23% or 0.35 points to 150.91.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Helmerich and Payne Inc (NYSE:HP) which rose 12.56% to 32.44, Nov Inc (NYSE:NOV) which was up 12.13% to settle at 17.29 and Apache Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) which gained 10.82% to close at 23.25.
The worst performers were Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) which was down 12.31% to 28.85 in late trade, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL) which lost 5.57% to settle at 86.51 and Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which was down 4.78% to 26.09 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Second Sight Medical Products (NASDAQ:EYES) which rose 304.90% to 5.79, Sify Technologies Limited (NASDAQ:SIFY) which was up 45.93% to settle at 3.940 and XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:XTLB) which gained 29.76% to close at 3.750.
The worst performers were Super League Gaming Inc (NASDAQ:SLGG) which was down 33.11% to 5.90 in late trade, Evofem Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:EVFM) which lost 30.28% to settle at 2.28 and Capital Franchising Inc (NASDAQ:FORA) which was down 25.88% to 11.5700 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2439 to 763 and 85 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2244 rose and 1092 declined, while 62 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 13.69% to 24.66.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.16% or 2.70 to $1698.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 3.81% or 2.43 to hit $66.26 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 4.20% or 2.80 to trade at $69.54 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.40% to 1.1918, while USD/JPY rose 0.38% to 108.38.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.41% at 92.018.