Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, Telecoms and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.05% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.15%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which rose 1.51% or 1.08 points to trade at 72.39 at the close. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) added 1.51% or 1.83 points to end at 122.73 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 0.97% or 0.35 points to 36.53 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which lost 1.53% or 3.84 points to trade at 247.35 in late trade. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) declined 0.88% or 0.80 points to end at 90.33 and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) shed 0.86% or 0.70 points to 81.08.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Foot Locker Inc (NYSE:FL) which rose 9.38% to 75.01, Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU) which was up 6.06% to settle at 128.01 and Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN) which gained 5.74% to close at 46.46.
The worst performers were Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which was down 11.98% to 7.35 in late trade, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) which lost 6.89% to settle at 22.96 and Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC) which was down 4.49% to 27.64 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Cempra Inc (NASDAQ:CEMP) which rose 28.57% to 4.050, Applied Opt (NASDAQ:AAOI) which was up 22.71% to settle at 45.98 and Universal Display (NASDAQ:OLED) which gained 20.09% to close at 81.00.
The worst performers were Cumulus Media Inc (NASDAQ:CMLS) which was down 24.10% to 0.7590 in late trade, FunctionX Inc (NASDAQ:FNCX) which lost 22.48% to settle at 1.0000 and My Size Inc (NASDAQ:MYSZ) which was down 15.09% to 2.70 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1646 to 1572 and 46 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1304 fell and 1214 advanced, while 105 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.79% to 11.50.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.53% or 6.60 to $1258.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.75% or 0.41 to hit $54.04 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.97% or 0.55 to trade at $56.03 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.21% to 1.0559, while USD/JPY fell 0.44% to 112.12.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 101.14.