Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Oil & Gas and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.49% to hit a new 1-month high, while the S&P 500 index added 1.35%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Visa Inc (NYSE:V), which rose 4.34% or 2.89 points to trade at 69.47 at the close. Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) added 2.81% or 3.97 points to end at 145.46 and EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD) was up 2.66% or 1.95 points to 75.28 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which added 0.64% or 0.50 points to trade at 78.53 in late trade. Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) added 0.69% or 0.28 points to end at 40.98 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) gained 0.70% or 0.55 points to 78.98.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which rose 5.85% to 28.94, Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC) which was up 5.74% to settle at 64.29 and NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) which gained 5.73% to close at 26.40.
The worst performers were Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) which was down 10.47% to 128.47 in late trade, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which lost 7.47% to settle at 20.81 and Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ:CERN) which was down 4.53% to 68.02 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Torchlight Energ (NASDAQ:TRCH) which rose 55.58% to 0.700, China Gerui Advanced Materials (NASDAQ:CHOP) which was up 50.81% to settle at 2.790 and Calithera Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CALA) which gained 45.69% to close at 13.87.
The worst performers were ParkerVision Inc (NASDAQ:PRKR) which was down 40.29% to 0.394 in late trade, Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) which lost 28.00% to settle at 26.95 and Amedica Cor (NASDAQ:AMDA) which was down 23.54% to 0.244 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2481 to 659 and 1 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1749 rose and 1048 declined, while 2 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 14.87% to 12.88.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.47% or 5.50 to $1187.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.78% or 0.46 to hit $59.40 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.10% or 0.07 to trade at $65.47 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.52% to 1.1207, while USD/JPY fell 0.01% to 119.73.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.15% at 94.87.