Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.89%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.15%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which rose 5.57% or 6.79 points to trade at 128.65 at the close. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) added 4.65% or 4.69 points to end at 105.57 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was up 3.25% or 2.73 points to 86.73 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), which lost 3.07% or 1.17 points to trade at 36.96 in late trade. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) declined 1.97% or 1.52 points to end at 75.60 and Raytheon Technologies Corp (NYSE:RTX) shed 1.57% or 0.91 points to 57.01.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) which rose 21.23% to 135.12, Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) which was up 16.25% to settle at 34.77 and PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) which gained 14.01% to close at 146.29.
The worst performers were Welltower Inc (NYSE:WELL) which was down 7.33% to 42.00 in late trade, Lamb Weston Holdings Inc (NYSE:LW) which lost 6.07% to settle at 55.42 and HollyFrontier Corporation (NYSE:HFC) which was down 5.66% to 28.31 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:TTPH) which rose 74.10% to 2.420, Genius Brands International Inc (NASDAQ:GNUS) which was up 73.90% to settle at 0.8347 and Waitr Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:WTRH) which gained 44.44% to close at 2.3400.
The worst performers were SG Blocks Inc (NASDAQ:SGBX) which was down 28.18% to 2.3700 in late trade, Microvision Inc (NASDAQ:MVIS) which lost 25.87% to settle at 0.8377 and Vascular Biogenics Ltd (NASDAQ:VBLT) which was down 21.47% to 1.280 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2113 to 749 and 65 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1802 rose and 843 declined, while 66 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.85% to 31.44.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 2.28% or 38.50 to $1727.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 2.46% or 0.59 to hit $23.40 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.10% or 0.03 to trade at $29.44 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.00% to 1.0832, while USD/JPY rose 0.04% to 106.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 99.873.