Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.26%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.41%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.75%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 1.92% or 1.60 points to trade at 85.13 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 1.81% or 0.78 points to end at 43.87 and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) was up 1.73% or 1.92 points to 112.78 in late trade.
Biggest losers included American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which lost 2.98% or 2.40 points to trade at 78.08 in late trade. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) declined 0.66% or 0.23 points to end at 34.64 and Visa Inc (NYSE:V) shed 0.47% or 1.28 points to 269.63.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Pioneer Natural Resources Company (NYSE:PXD) which rose 6.55% to 157.85, VF Corporation (NYSE:VFC) which was up 6.00% to settle at 75.26 and Helmerich & Payne Inc (NYSE:HP) which gained 5.49% to close at 69.58.
The worst performers were Assurant Inc (NYSE:AIZ) which was down 7.50% to 61.44 in late trade, ConAgra Foods Inc (NYSE:CAG) which lost 4.37% to settle at 34.83 and DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) which was down 4.31% to 73.10 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Signal Genetics (NASDAQ:SGNL) which rose 122.16% to 3.91, Genetic Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:GENE) which was up 30.94% to settle at 8.040 and Rocky Brands Inc (NASDAQ:RCKY) which gained 30.71% to close at 18.43.
The worst performers were Prana Biotechnology Ltd (NASDAQ:PRAN) which was down 33.54% to 1.090 in late trade, Corinthian Colleges Inc (NASDAQ:COCO) which lost 26.90% to settle at 0.021 and Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) which was down 15.79% to 2.24 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1808 to 989; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1748 rose and 1017 declined, while 11 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.11% to 14.71.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.68% or 8.30 to $1229.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 2.60% or 1.33 to hit $52.54 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 3.50% or 2.08 to trade at $61.35 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.13% to 1.1388, while USD/JPY fell 0.27% to 118.79.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 94.24.