Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.36%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.45%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.52%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), which rose 2.69% or 1.10 points to trade at 41.98 at the close. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) added 2.28% or 0.77 points to end at 34.51 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) was up 2.06% or 0.84 points to 41.59 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which lost 0.73% or 0.83 points to trade at 112.18 in late trade. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) declined 0.62% or 1.14 points to end at 183.52 and Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) shed 0.40% or 0.48 points to 119.21.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Noble Energy Inc (NASDAQ:NBL) which rose 7.79% to 9.55, Akamai Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AKAM) which was up 6.39% to settle at 113.12 and TechnipFMC PLC (NYSE:FTI) which gained 5.35% to close at 7.28.
The worst performers were DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) which was down 4.52% to 33.06 in late trade, Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which lost 2.93% to settle at 15.88 and Macerich Company (NYSE:MAC) which was down 2.87% to 8.45 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Genius Brands International Inc (NASDAQ:GNUS) which rose 53.68% to 3.5500, Francescas Holdings (NASDAQ:FRAN) which was up 42.65% to settle at 4.95 and Interpace Diagnostics Group Inc (NASDAQ:IDXG) which gained 39.23% to close at 6.1400.
The worst performers were Myos Rens Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MYOS) which was down 30.33% to 1.700 in late trade, AEterna Zentaris Inc (NASDAQ:AEZS) which lost 29.93% to settle at 0.378 and Sunworks Inc (NASDAQ:SUNW) which was down 28.82% to 0.747 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1724 to 1123 and 81 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1392 rose and 1292 declined, while 75 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.28% to 27.68.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.40% or 7.15 to $1787.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.13% or 0.45 to hit $40.27 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.07% or 0.03 to trade at $42.80 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.00% to 1.1238, while USD/JPY rose 0.05% to 107.53.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 97.203.