Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Consumer Goods and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.91%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.69%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which rose 4.51% or 1.48 points to trade at 34.33 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 4.49% or 4.82 points to end at 112.11 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) was up 4.39% or 1.94 points to 46.18 in late trade.
Biggest losers included McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which added 0.06% or 0.11 points to trade at 181.23 in late trade. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 0.59% or 1.08 points to end at 184.68 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) gained 0.70% or 2.00 points to 287.00.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Helmerich and Payne Inc (NYSE:HP) which rose 13.51% to 17.73, Noble Energy Inc (NASDAQ:NBL) which was up 13.46% to settle at 10.03 and News Corp B (NASDAQ:NWS) which gained 13.29% to close at 11.25.
The worst performers were TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) which was down 4.33% to 17.91 in late trade, Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) which lost 3.63% to settle at 131.27 and Fleetcor Technologies Inc (NYSE:FLT) which was down 3.51% to 240.00 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Fuel Tech Inc (NASDAQ:FTEK) which rose 93.78% to 0.9100, Protagonist Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PTGX) which was up 83.70% to settle at 14.20 and Everspin Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:MRAM) which gained 51.88% to close at 4.86.
The worst performers were Genius Brands International Inc (NASDAQ:GNUS) which was down 30.51% to 0.5800 in late trade, China Advanced Construction Materials Group Inc (NASDAQ:HHT) which lost 20.31% to settle at 0.510 and Shotspotter Inc (NASDAQ:SSTI) which was down 19.40% to 23.48 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2408 to 482 and 49 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2068 rose and 580 declined, while 61 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 11.01% to 27.98 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.22% or 21.00 to $1704.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 4.54% or 1.07 to hit $24.62 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 4.82% or 1.42 to trade at $30.88 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.06% to 1.0839, while USD/JPY rose 0.38% to 106.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 99.773.