Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Industrials, Healthcare and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.55%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.52%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.43%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which rose 10.80% or 2.78 points to trade at 28.51 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 2.38% or 1.92 points to end at 82.60 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 2.21% or 0.69 points to 31.93 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which lost 0.74% or 0.75 points to trade at 99.97 in late trade. Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) declined 0.41% or 0.17 points to end at 40.88 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) shed 0.31% or 0.18 points to 57.25.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) which rose 10.80% to 28.51, Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) which was up 5.59% to settle at 25.58 and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) which gained 4.80% to close at 683.02.
The worst performers were Fidelity National Information Svcs (NYSE:FIS) which was down 3.79% to 65.50 in late trade, Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) which lost 3.72% to settle at 41.14 and Principal Financial Group Inc (NYSE:PFG) which was down 3.23% to 50.28 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were KBS Fashion Group Ltd (NASDAQ:KBSF) which rose 30.44% to 6.00, Tantech Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:TANH) which was up 27.31% to settle at 13.94 and InfoSonics Corp (NASDAQ:IFON) which gained 18.97% to close at 2.760.
The worst performers were Extreme Networks Inc (NASDAQ:EXTR) which was down 22.99% to 2.50 in late trade, Ceres Inc (NASDAQ:CERE) which lost 16.33% to settle at 2.100 and Image Sensing Systems Inc (NASDAQ:ISNS) which was down 13.97% to 2.71 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1707 to 1101; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1624 rose and 1152 declined, while 5 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.35% to 12.52 a new 3-month .
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 1.20% or 14.30 to $1207.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.70% or 0.86 to hit $51.66 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 2.36% or 1.33 to trade at $57.91 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.58% to 1.0596, while USD/JPY fell 0.29% to 120.23.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.42% at 99.67.