Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Basic Materials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.04%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.03%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.39%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 1.45% or 1.50 points to trade at 105.01 at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) added 1.38% or 2.98 points to end at 218.76 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) was up 1.24% or 1.04 points to 84.95 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which lost 1.51% or 1.60 points to trade at 104.32 in late trade. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) declined 1.34% or 0.86 points to end at 63.20 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) shed 1.04% or 0.92 points to 87.85.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN) which rose 10.25% to 44.63, Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) which was up 10.21% to settle at 55.71 and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which gained 7.26% to close at 159.95.
The worst performers were Urban Outfitters Inc (NASDAQ:URBN) which was down 10.31% to 16.35 in late trade, Advance Auto Parts Inc (NYSE:AAP) which lost 3.60% to settle at 125.92 and BorgWarner Inc (NYSE:BWA) which was down 2.95% to 42.43 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Delcath Systems Inc (NASDAQ:DCTH) which rose 94.47% to 0.0422, Ability Inc (NASDAQ:ABIL) which was up 66.59% to settle at 1.41 and One Horizon Group Inc (NASDAQ:OHGI) which gained 29.28% to close at 1.2799.
The worst performers were NewLink Genetics Corporation (NASDAQ:NLNK) which was down 41.24% to 6.24 in late trade, MoSys Inc (NASDAQ:MOSY) which lost 23.24% to settle at 1.4200 and Perfumania Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PERF) which was down 14.19% to 1.330 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1836 to 1386 and 25 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1713 rose and 809 declined, while 97 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.60% to 10.12.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.90% or 11.59 to $1281.61 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.11% or 0.05 to hit $45.67 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.16 to trade at $47.90 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.36% to 1.1216, while USD/JPY rose 0.14% to 109.97.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.27% at 96.93.