Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Industrials and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.85%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.76%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.92%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which rose 5.92% or 4.47 points to trade at 80.02 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 2.11% or 1.96 points to end at 94.66 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) was up 1.85% or 3.97 points to 218.06 in late trade.
Biggest losers included The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which lost 1.26% or 1.52 points to trade at 118.88 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) declined 1.08% or 0.53 points to end at 48.41 and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) shed 0.32% or 0.14 points to 43.09.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE:ADS) which rose 8.30% to 260.62, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) which was up 6.03% to settle at 104.03 and Navient Cor (NASDAQ:NAVI) which gained 5.96% to close at 16.01.
The worst performers were United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which was down 5.20% to 113.24 in late trade, Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) which lost 4.11% to settle at 82.89 and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) which was down 3.91% to 32.53 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IMNP) which rose 49.59% to 3.6500, Select Comfort Corporation (NASDAQ:SCSS) which was up 28.26% to settle at 33.18 and Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:HMNY) which gained 20.51% to close at 3.266.
The worst performers were Altisource Portfolio Solutions SA (NASDAQ:ASPS) which was down 42.02% to 25.44 in late trade, Argos Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ARGS) which lost 19.99% to settle at 0.48 and Aldeyra The (NASDAQ:ALDX) which was down 16.35% to 4.35 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2209 to 999 and 40 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1818 rose and 715 declined, while 82 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.16% to 14.16.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.03% or 0.40 to $1283.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.43% or 0.22 to hit $50.63 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $52.92 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.06% to 1.0717, while USD/JPY rose 0.40% to 109.30.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 99.70.