Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.37%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.35%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.14%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which rose 1.25% or 1.41 points to trade at 114.54 at the close. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) added 1.12% or 0.55 points to end at 49.47 and United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) was up 1.04% or 1.21 points to 117.13 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which lost 1.06% or 0.43 points to trade at 40.29 in late trade. McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) declined 0.48% or 0.46 points to end at 95.83 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) shed 0.44% or 0.12 points to 27.13.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX) which rose 9.27% to 74.73, Genworth Financial Inc (NYSE:GNW) which was up 5.87% to settle at 7.76 and Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which gained 5.16% to close at 24.04.
The worst performers were Motorola Solutions Inc (NYSE:MSI) which was down 6.24% to 62.51 in late trade, Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) which lost 5.75% to settle at 59.80 and Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) which was down 5.15% to 86.61 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX) which rose 37.63% to 1.730, Response Genetics Inc (NASDAQ:RGDX) which was up 37.04% to settle at 0.370 and Liquid Hlgs (NASDAQ:LIQD) which gained 26.09% to close at 0.290.
The worst performers were Magellan Petroleum Corporation (NASDAQ:MPET) which was down 35.48% to 0.291 in late trade, Perseon Corp (NASDAQ:PRSN) which lost 26.80% to settle at 0.300 and Cytosorbents Crp (NASDAQ:CTSO) which was down 14.52% to 7.71 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2007 to 805; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1642 rose and 1136 declined, while 8 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.91% to 14.67.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.54% or 6.50 to $1201.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.35% or 0.68 to hit $49.41 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 3.50% or 2.00 to trade at $55.10 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.12% to 1.0882, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 119.72.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.75% at 97.78.