Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Technology and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.68%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 3.06%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 3.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which rose 7.44% or 12.87 points to trade at 185.92 at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) added 5.79% or 16.58 points to end at 302.75 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was up 5.64% or 7.56 points to 141.53 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which lost 2.17% or 1.13 points to trade at 50.96 in late trade. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) declined 0.83% or 4.17 points to end at 495.64 and Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) gained 0.08% or 0.10 points to 123.72.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL) which rose 15.77% to 41.76, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) which was up 15.36% to settle at 13.22 and Penn National Gaming Inc (NASDAQ:PENN) which gained 12.66% to close at 32.12.
The worst performers were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) which was down 2.17% to 50.96 in late trade, Citrix Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CTXS) which lost 1.86% to settle at 96.59 and SolarEdge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SEDG) which was down 1.78% to 286.34 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were USA Truck Inc (NASDAQ:USAK) which rose 112.62% to 31.00, Benitec Biopharma Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:BNTC) which was up 64.86% to settle at 1.22 and Toughbuilt Industries Inc (NASDAQ:TBLT) which gained 55.17% to close at 2.70.
The worst performers were Tenax Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TENX) which was down 46.86% to 0.31 in late trade, Panbela Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PBLA) which lost 42.80% to settle at 0.61 and Meta Materials Inc (NASDAQ:MMAT) which was down 38.74% to 1.17 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2637 to 523 and 109 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2505 rose and 1264 declined, while 203 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.27% to 27.23.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.11% or 2.05 to $1,827.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 3.17% or 3.31 to hit $107.58 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 2.77% or 3.05 to trade at $113.10 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.29% to 1.06, while USD/JPY rose 0.21% to 135.21.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.29% at 103.89.