Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Utilities, Technology and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.39%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.80%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which rose 1.97% or 0.90 points to trade at 46.66 at the close. International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) added 1.47% or 2.47 points to end at 171.00 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 1.33% or 1.69 points to 128.51 in late trade.
Biggest losers included McDonald`s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which lost 1.22% or 1.21 points to trade at 97.86 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 0.84% or 1.78 points to end at 211.18 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) shed 0.74% or 0.93 points to 124.93.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which rose 18.02% to 115.81, TECO Energy Inc (NYSE:TE) which was up 15.61% to settle at 21.48 and Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) which gained 5.20% to close at 102.79.
The worst performers were Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) which was down 7.42% to 261.23 in late trade, Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ:GRMN) which lost 7.11% to settle at 43.10 and Delphi Automotive plc (NYSE:DLPH) which was down 4.86% to 76.80 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Voltari Corp (NASDAQ:VLTC) which rose 38.65% to 8.000, Ambassadors Group Inc (NASDAQ:EPAX) which was up 24.17% to settle at 2.24 and Fusion Tele (NASDAQ:FSNN) which gained 21.87% to close at 2.62.
The worst performers were Spherix Incorporated (NASDAQ:SPEX) which was down 41.41% to 0.250 in late trade, Delcath Systems Inc (NASDAQ:DCTH) which lost 29.00% to settle at 0.589 and Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ:ROVI) which was down 20.18% to 14.00 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2049 to 1047 and 3 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1863 rose and 947 declined, while 10 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 8.31% to 12.13.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.32% or 3.70 to $1143.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.05% or 0.54 to hit $50.87 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.14 to trade at $56.98 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.65% to 1.0878, while USD/JPY rose 0.29% to 124.12.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.49% at 97.77.