Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.40%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.39%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD), which rose 1.57% or 0.83 points to trade at 53.86 at the close. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) added 1.15% or 0.33 points to end at 29.03 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) was up 1.12% or 0.29 points to 26.08 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), which lost 0.37% or 0.29 points to trade at 78.36 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) declined 0.36% or 0.17 points to end at 47.49 and Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) shed 0.33% or 0.36 points to 107.16.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY) which rose 7.42% to 41.38, Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN) which was up 4.28% to settle at 78.13 and Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) which gained 2.93% to close at 32.64.
The worst performers were Viacom B Inc (NASDAQ:VIAB) which was down 4.55% to 43.67 in late trade, Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (NYSE:DO) which lost 4.54% to settle at 22.10 and Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) which was down 4.33% to 16.93 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Prima BioMed Ltd (NASDAQ:PBMD) which rose 44.00% to 1.440, Southcoast Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:SOCB) which was up 43.02% to settle at 12.900 and Energy Focu (NASDAQ:EFOI) which gained 39.90% to close at 19.18.
The worst performers were xG Technology Inc (NASDAQ:XGTI) which was down 59.27% to 0.900 in late trade, 6D Global Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SIXD) which lost 29.53% to settle at 3.03 and Sfx Enterta (NASDAQ:SFXE) which was down 28.35% to 1.39 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1671 to 795; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1549 rose and 1008 declined, while 6 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.74% to 12.85.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.10% or 1.10 to $1114.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.21% or 0.09 to hit $42.14 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.70% or 0.84 to trade at $48.78 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.34% to 1.1113, while USD/JPY fell 0.12% to 124.30.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.24% at 96.59.