Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Consumer Services and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.65% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.61%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which rose 2.77% or 3.57 points to trade at 132.23 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) added 2.00% or 0.85 points to end at 43.35 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was up 1.96% or 6.29 points to 326.55 in late trade.
Biggest losers included American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which lost 0.58% or 0.59 points to trade at 100.63 in late trade. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) declined 0.46% or 0.41 points to end at 90.06 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) shed 0.30% or 0.52 points to 172.99.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Viacom B Inc (NASDAQ:VIAB) which rose 5.62% to 30.80, Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) which was up 5.41% to settle at 58.88 and Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX) which gained 5.22% to close at 31.93.
The worst performers were Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) which was down 3.21% to 93.52 in late trade, Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) which lost 2.52% to settle at 34.31 and SBA Communications Corp (NASDAQ:SBAC) which was down 2.10% to 157.51 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were RMG Networks Holding Corp (NASDAQ:RMGN) which rose 68.00% to 1.6800, Chinanet Online Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNET) which was up 40.48% to settle at 7.0660 and The9 Limited (NASDAQ:NCTY) which gained 30.07% to close at 1.090.
The worst performers were Lipocine In (NASDAQ:LPCN) which was down 46.53% to 1.85 in late trade, SemiLEDS Corporation (NASDAQ:LEDS) which lost 27.94% to settle at 4.7200 and National Holdings (NASDAQ:NHLD) which was down 26.42% to 3.9000 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2400 to 749 and 27 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1905 rose and 618 declined, while 100 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.61% to 9.88.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.28% or 3.70 to $1323.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.19% or 0.12 to hit $63.69 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $69.22 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.76% to 1.2038, while USD/JPY fell 0.26% to 111.15.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.52% at 91.63.