Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Technology and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.62%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.96%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which rose 9.39% or 2.53 points to trade at 29.46 at the close. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) added 2.06% or 1.20 points to end at 59.57 and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) was up 1.95% or 1.77 points to 92.37 in late trade.
Biggest losers included American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which lost 6.43% or 5.53 points to trade at 80.48 in late trade. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) declined 1.93% or 1.94 points to end at 98.44 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) shed 0.58% or 0.29 points to 49.52.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) which rose 22.49% to 82.40, Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) which was up 14.51% to settle at 89.57 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) which gained 9.39% to close at 29.46.
The worst performers were NetApp Inc (NASDAQ:NTAP) which was down 7.28% to 36.90 in late trade, Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) which lost 6.72% to settle at 81.42 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) which was down 6.43% to 80.48 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Life Partners Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LPHI) which rose 45.17% to 0.233, Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Tech (NASDAQ:HART) which was up 36.51% to settle at 2.58 and Genetic Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:GENE) which gained 36.44% to close at 6.140.
The worst performers were Joes Jeans Inc (NASDAQ:JOEZ) which was down 40.94% to 0.330 in late trade, Zulily Inc A (NASDAQ:ZU) which lost 27.00% to settle at 14.52 and Corinthian Colleges Inc (NASDAQ:COCO) which was down 21.62% to 0.029 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2316 to 481 and 1 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1981 rose and 805 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 9.67% to 15.32.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.14% or 1.70 to $1221.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 4.79% or 2.34 to hit $51.18 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 6.10% or 3.41 to trade at $59.33 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.60% to 1.1402, while USD/JPY fell 1.22% to 118.97.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.91% at 94.30.