Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.39% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.47%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.61%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which rose 1.72% or 1.29 points to trade at 76.34 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 1.41% or 1.01 points to end at 72.78 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 1.28% or 0.44 points to 34.68 in late trade.
Biggest losers included JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), which lost 0.91% or 0.85 points to trade at 92.25 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 0.78% or 1.80 points to end at 228.60 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) shed 0.27% or 0.41 points to 152.88.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were NetApp Inc (NASDAQ:NTAP) which rose 5.46% to 43.64, Frontier Communications Corp (NASDAQ:FTR) which was up 5.12% to settle at 14.77 and NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) which gained 4.68% to close at 23.24.
The worst performers were F5 Networks Inc (NASDAQ:FFIV) which was down 3.47% to 123.84 in late trade, Wynn Resorts Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) which lost 3.38% to settle at 130.42 and Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) which was down 2.36% to 66.25 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Ocean Rig UDW Inc (NASDAQ:ORIG) which rose 66.50% to 0.1998, Rand Logistics Inc (NASDAQ:RLOG) which was up 63.67% to settle at 0.3920 and FalconStor Software Inc (NASDAQ:FALC) which gained 26.88% to close at 0.279.
The worst performers were TrovaGene Inc (NASDAQ:TROV) which was down 20.57% to 1.120 in late trade, Cyberark Software Ltd (NASDAQ:CYBR) which lost 16.31% to settle at 42.68 and Westport Fuel Systems Inc (NASDAQ:WPRT) which was down 15.46% to 1.640 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2228 to 884 and 128 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1291 rose and 1154 declined, while 174 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.83% to 9.62 a new all time low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.92% or 11.14 to $1228.44 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.17% or 0.54 to hit $46.62 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.22% or 0.59 to trade at $49.01 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.62% to 1.1469, while USD/JPY fell 0.69% to 112.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.70% at 94.89.