Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.11%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.24%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), which rose 2.95% or 4.88 points to trade at 170.24 at the close. The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) added 1.43% or 1.46 points to end at 103.48 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) was up 1.23% or 0.43 points to 35.36 in late trade.
Biggest losers included 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), which lost 3.04% or 5.01 points to trade at 159.66 in late trade. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) declined 1.79% or 1.48 points to end at 80.95 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) shed 1.07% or 0.35 points to 32.35.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Cameron International Corporation (NYSE:CAM) which rose 7.67% to 52.78, Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) which was up 5.43% to settle at 19.41 and OReilly Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:ORLY) which gained 5.37% to close at 228.31.
The worst performers were PulteGroup Inc (NYSE:PHM) which was down 7.93% to 19.97 in late trade, Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN) which lost 6.83% to settle at 54.72 and Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) which was down 3.49% to 46.72 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were China Auto Logistics Inc (NASDAQ:CALI) which rose 68.84% to 2.330, Scynexis In (NASDAQ:SCYX) which was up 29.74% to settle at 9.99 and NF Energy Saving Corporation (NASDAQ:NFEC) which gained 28.89% to close at 2.300.
The worst performers were Motricity (NASDAQ:VLTC) which was down 27.08% to 11.040 in late trade, Mobileiron (NASDAQ:MOBL) which lost 25.16% to settle at 7.11 and Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp (NASDAQ:CIDM) which was down 23.00% to 0.970 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2041 to 1041 and 1 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1657 rose and 1119 declined, while 4 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.05% to 12.45 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.59% or 7.00 to $1193.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 2.40% or 1.35 to hit $57.51 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 3.35% or 2.10 to trade at $64.83 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.99% to 1.0832, while USD/JPY fell 0.34% to 119.50.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.82% at 97.43.