Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Industrials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.45%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.32%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which rose 1.55% or 1.04 points to trade at 68.25 at the close. International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) added 1.53% or 2.22 points to end at 147.29 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 1.22% or 0.32 points to 26.53 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which lost 0.91% or 0.49 points to trade at 53.60 in late trade. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 0.56% or 0.52 points to end at 92.72 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) shed 0.43% or 0.68 points to 158.85.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) which rose 8.48% to 37.87, Teradata Corporation (NYSE:TDC) which was up 7.12% to settle at 28.14 and PerkinElmer Inc (NYSE:PKI) which gained 6.86% to close at 54.23.
The worst performers were Endo International PLC (NASDAQ:ENDP) which was down 39.19% to 16.17 in late trade, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which lost 19.61% to settle at 4.59 and Mallinckrodt (NYSE:MNK) which was down 7.27% to 56.40 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Morgans Hotel Group Co (NASDAQ:MHGC) which rose 43.61% to 1.91, Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) which was up 28.00% to settle at 0.3200 and Attunity Ltd (NASDAQ:ATTU) which gained 25.03% to close at 9.290.
The worst performers were KemPharm Inc (NASDAQ:KMPH) which was down 55.90% to 6.91 in late trade, Endo International PLC (NASDAQ:ENDP) which lost 39.19% to settle at 16.17 and Intersect ENT Inc (NASDAQ:XENT) which was down 32.10% to 13.81 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2075 to 1224 and 34 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1387 rose and 1149 declined, while 74 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.17% to 14.77.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 1.46% or 18.55 to $1290.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.77% or 0.34 to hit $44.66 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.73% or 0.33 to trade at $45.34 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.03% to 1.1402, while USD/JPY fell 0.14% to 107.11.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.12% at 93.84.