U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.61%

© Reuters. U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.61%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Services, Technology and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.61%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.99%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 2.68%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which rose 4.65% or 5.67 points to trade at 127.73 at the close. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) added 4.38% or 4.74 points to end at 112.94 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was up 3.15% or 9.24 points to 302.81 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which lost 1.54% or 1.44 points to trade at 92.31 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) declined 0.49% or 0.25 points to end at 50.99 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shed 0.09% or 0.16 points to 179.46.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Dollar Tree Inc (NASDAQ:DLTR) which rose 21.87% to 162.80, DXC Technology Co (NYSE:DXC) which was up 15.99% to settle at 34.16 and Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) which gained 13.71% to close at 222.13.

The worst performers were Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) which was down 6.10% to 37.07 in late trade, Medtronic PLC (NYSE:MDT) which lost 5.78% to settle at 99.44 and Centene Corp (NYSE:CNC) which was down 4.01% to 81.89 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Creatd Inc (NASDAQ:CRTD) which rose 58.46% to 1.28, Apyx Medical Inc (NASDAQ:APYX) which was up 51.89% to settle at 5.62 and Scisparc Ltd (NASDAQ:SPRC) which gained 41.10% to close at 3.33.

The worst performers were Avadel Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ:AVDL) which was down 68.34% to 1.07 in late trade, NRX Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:NRXP) which lost 58.19% to settle at 0.58 and OTR Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:CMRA) which was down 36.64% to 3.39 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2646 to 559 and 111 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2849 rose and 986 declined, while 217 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.07% to 27.50.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.18% or 3.27 to $1,849.57 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 3.35% or 3.70 to hit $114.03 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 2.78% or 3.09 to trade at $114.21 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.46% to 1.07, while USD/JPY fell 0.20% to 127.06.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.28% at 101.79.