Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.17%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.54%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.90%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), which rose 2.64% or 1.80 points to trade at 70.04 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) added 2.53% or 0.79 points to end at 32.02 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 2.16% or 4.79 points to 226.34 in late trade.
Biggest losers included JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), which lost 1.87% or 3.90 points to trade at 204.79 in late trade. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) declined 1.53% or 2.40 points to end at 154.31 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) shed 1.23% or 0.65 points to 52.23.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) which rose 5.87% to 539.89, Baxter International Inc (NYSE:BAX) which was up 5.28% to settle at 34.91 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which gained 4.88% to close at 171.90.
The worst performers were Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) which was down 5.74% to 26.94 in late trade, First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) which lost 3.89% to settle at 222.12 and Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) which was down 3.79% to 131.63 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Phio Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ:PHIO) which rose 802.75% to 5.24, Beneficient (NASDAQ:BENF) which was up 125.12% to settle at 4.84 and Qualigen Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:QLGN) which gained 59.54% to close at 0.28.
The worst performers were Vicinity Motor Corp (NASDAQ:VEV) which was down 30.67% to 0.39 in late trade, Qilian International Holding Group Ltd (NASDAQ:QLI) which lost 26.88% to settle at 4.08 and China Liberal Education Holdings (NASDAQ:CLEU) which was down 24.04% to 2.18 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1601 to 1226 and 98 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1846 fell and 1507 advanced, while 109 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.79% to 12.48.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 1.20% or 28.35 to $2,397.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.72% or 0.60 to hit $83.28 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.74% or 0.65 to trade at $86.78 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.28% to 1.08, while USD/JPY fell 0.28% to 160.79.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.52% at 104.54.