Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.18%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.12%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which rose 2.23% or 3.44 points to trade at 157.49 at the close. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) added 0.93% or 0.76 points to end at 82.19 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was up 0.89% or 1.44 points to 162.36 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which lost 1.20% or 1.19 points to trade at 98.05 in late trade. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) declined 1.14% or 1.34 points to end at 115.84 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shed 0.62% or 0.95 points to 153.28.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were McCormick & Company Incorporated (NYSE:MKC) which rose 5.39% to 101.65, AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) which was up 4.97% to settle at 88.960 and Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT) which gained 3.64% to close at 50.62.
The worst performers were Navient Corp (NASDAQ:NAVI) which was down 3.93% to 14.92 in late trade, TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) which lost 3.53% to settle at 40.46 and Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:GILD) which was down 3.52% to 80.91 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Alliance MMA Inc (NASDAQ:AMMA) which rose 87.50% to 2.40, Ominto Inc (NASDAQ:OMNT) which was up 66.29% to settle at 5.8200 and Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ZYNE) which gained 52.50% to close at 9.44.
The worst performers were DexCom Inc (NASDAQ:DXCM) which was down 32.65% to 45.44 in late trade, Health Insurance Innovations Inc (NASDAQ:HIIQ) which lost 24.19% to settle at 14.100 and Sphere 3D Corp (NASDAQ:ANY) which was down 23.99% to 2.250 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1777 to 1288 and 145 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1374 rose and 1094 declined, while 172 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.04% to 9.57.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.19% or 2.39 to $1290.19 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.07% or 0.56 to hit $51.58 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.57% or 0.33 to trade at $57.24 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.30% to 1.1782, while USD/JPY fell 0.42% to 112.37.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.30% at 92.99.