Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Services and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.23%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which rose 1.33% or 1.31 points to trade at 100.07 at the close. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) added 1.23% or 0.41 points to end at 33.86 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) was up 1.04% or 0.68 points to 66.11 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which lost 2.04% or 2.50 points to trade at 120.07 in late trade. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) declined 1.93% or 0.57 points to end at 28.93 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 0.70% or 0.58 points to 81.69.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NYSE:WBA) which rose 4.24% to 89.55, Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) which was up 4.07% to settle at 156.56 and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which gained 3.27% to close at 11.68.
The worst performers were Baxalta Inc (NYSE:BXLT) which was down 3.50% to 30.06 in late trade, Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR) which lost 3.40% to settle at 49.46 and Joy Global Inc (NYSE:JOY) which was down 3.37% to 31.25 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were VisionChina Media Inc (NASDAQ:VISN) which rose 35.00% to 9.990, Kingtone Wirelessinfo Solution (NASDAQ:KONE) which was up 33.30% to settle at 4.519 and AirMedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:AMCN) which gained 26.34% to close at 4.70.
The worst performers were Aquinox Pha (NASDAQ:AQXP) which was down 67.48% to 2.13 in late trade, QLogic Corporation (NASDAQ:QLGC) which lost 21.32% to settle at 11.00 and Home Federal Bancorp Louisiana (NASDAQ:HFBL) which was down 17.78% to 20.35 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1838 to 1253 and 2 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1762 rose and 1014 declined, while 9 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.58% to 19.97 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.30% or 3.50 to $1160.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 2.06% or 1.06 to hit $52.72 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 2.63% or 1.50 to trade at $58.55 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.41% to 1.1032, while USD/JPY rose 0.48% to 121.30.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.30% at 96.67.