Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Technology and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.46%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.38%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which rose 1.60% or 1.73 points to trade at 110.04 at the close. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) added 1.39% or 0.91 points to end at 66.58 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) was up 1.23% or 1.23 points to 101.45 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), which lost 0.67% or 0.59 points to trade at 87.60 in late trade. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) declined 0.64% or 0.56 points to end at 86.43 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) shed 0.57% or 0.17 points to 28.80.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) which rose 5.30% to 43.87, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which was up 5.13% to settle at 162.96 and Avago Technologies Limited (NASDAQ:AVGO) which gained 4.89% to close at 122.48.
The worst performers were Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ:WFM) which was down 9.74% to 43.07 in late trade, Keurig Green Mountain Inc (NASDAQ:GMCR) which lost 9.18% to settle at 98.16 and Teradata Corporation (NYSE:TDC) which was down 6.99% to 41.80 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) which rose 122.86% to 5.460, Quality Distribution Inc (NASDAQ:QLTY) which was up 60.61% to settle at 15.74 and Ceres Inc (NASDAQ:CERE) which gained 56.98% to close at 2.700.
The worst performers were Dex Media Inc (NASDAQ:DXM) which was down 46.82% to 1.42 in late trade, icad inc (NASDAQ:ICAD) which lost 41.76% to settle at 4.630 and Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXA) which was down 30.89% to 1.320 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1821 to 1313 and 2 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1589 rose and 1204 declined, while 5 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.33% to 15.10.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.60% or 7.20 to $1183.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 3.45% or 2.10 to hit $58.83 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 3.40% or 2.31 to trade at $65.47 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.71% to 1.1269, while USD/JPY rose 0.27% to 119.78.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.57% at 94.73.