Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Telecoms and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.11%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.28%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which rose 1.50% or 1.92 points to trade at 129.62 at the close. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) added 0.88% or 0.31 points to end at 35.52 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) was up 0.84% or 0.64 points to 76.45 in late trade.
Biggest losers included JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), which lost 1.43% or 0.89 points to trade at 61.26 in late trade. Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) declined 0.65% or 0.68 points to end at 104.15 and EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD) shed 0.68% or 0.44 points to 64.36.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG) which rose 20.30% to 54.52, Endo International PLC (NASDAQ:ENDP) which was up 8.92% to settle at 16.98 and Transocean Ltd (NYSE:RIG) which gained 7.32% to close at 12.75.
The worst performers were Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) which was down 9.16% to 12.50 in late trade, Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB) which lost 4.90% to settle at 20.57 and Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) which was down 3.32% to 174.00 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Trio Merger Corp (NASDAQ:SAEX) which rose 70.61% to 0.209, Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) which was up 32.48% to settle at 0.6175 and Yulong Eco-Materials Ltd (NASDAQ:YECO) which gained 27.79% to close at 2.190.
The worst performers were Cryoport Inc (NASDAQ:CYRX) which was down 18.27% to 1.7000 in late trade, LabStyle Innovations Corp (NASDAQ:DRIO) which lost 12.04% to settle at 4.530 and Vestin Realty Mortgage II Inc (NASDAQ:VRTB) which was down 11.54% to 2.300 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2093 to 1147 and 56 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1563 rose and 994 declined, while 63 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.69% to 14.74.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 1.75% or 23.15 to $1343.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.74% or 0.84 to hit $49.17 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.75% or 0.87 to trade at $50.58 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.23% to 1.1131, while USD/JPY fell 0.61% to 102.59.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.19% at 95.77.