Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Dow Jones Utilities, Dow Jones Consumer Goods and Dow Jones Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.31%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.95%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.98%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), which rose 5.83% or 8.14 points to trade at 147.78 at the close. McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) added 5.06% or 4.49 points to end at 93.27 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was up 2.75% or 2.88 points to 107.62 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which lost 0.68% or 0.71 points to trade at 103.00 in late trade. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) declined 0.43% or 0.38 points to end at 87.57 and United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) shed 0.40% or 0.47 points to 116.45.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Harman International Industries (NYSE:HAR) which rose 23.76% to 125.01, Varian Medical Systems Inc (NYSE:VAR) which was up 8.70% to settle at 94.05 and Coach Inc (NYSE:COH) which gained 6.80% to close at 38.94.
The worst performers were QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) which was down 10.28% to 63.69 in late trade, Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (NYSE:DO) which lost 6.48% to settle at 30.73 and Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) which was down 5.88% to 43.73 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Genetic Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:GENE) which rose 183.14% to 3.610, BSD Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:BSDM) which was up 64.92% to settle at 0.330 and Semler Scientifc (NASDAQ:SMLR) which gained 62.60% to close at 6.00.
The worst performers were Venaxis Inc (NASDAQ:APPY) which was down 73.14% to 0.548 in late trade, Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) which lost 47.19% to settle at 0.14 and Performant Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:PFMT) which was down 28.16% to 4.210 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1961 to 833; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1851 rose and 898 declined, while 4 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.97% to 18.81.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 2.37% or 30.50 to $1256.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 0.13% or 0.06 to hit $44.51 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract rose 1.24% or 0.60 to trade at $49.07 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.26% to 1.1319, while USD/JPY rose 0.68% to 118.34.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.08% at 94.96.