Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Utilities, Basic Materials and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.20%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.30%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.37%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 4.83% or 8.99 points to trade at 195.11 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 1.30% or 2.60 points to end at 203.19 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 1.03% or 1.10 points to 108.22 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which lost 3.39% or 5.13 points to trade at 146.05 in late trade. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) declined 1.86% or 2.36 points to end at 124.75 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) shed 1.12% or 0.43 points to 37.85.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE:DRI) which rose 8.12% to 97.31, Jefferies Financial Group Inc (NYSE:JEF) which was up 6.80% to settle at 18.23 and Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN) which gained 4.88% to close at 286.31.
The worst performers were CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX) which was down 11.00% to 94.28 in late trade, Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) which lost 7.04% to settle at 214.42 and Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which was down 5.14% to 2.77 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Sunworks Inc (NASDAQ:SUNW) which rose 238.79% to 3.930, Peck Company Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PECK) which was up 131.67% to settle at 7.90 and Polar Power Inc (NASDAQ:POLA) which gained 92.19% to close at 3.690.
The worst performers were Golar LNG Limited (NASDAQ:GLNG) which was down 32.35% to 6.86 in late trade, Kubient Inc (NASDAQ:KBNT) which lost 25.32% to settle at 2.92 and MediciNova Inc (NASDAQ:MNOV) which was down 22.04% to 4.67 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1545 to 1518 and 94 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1633 fell and 1214 advanced, while 78 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.24% to 28.51.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.20% or 3.65 to $1872.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.65% or 0.26 to hit $40.19 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $41.74 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.02% to 1.1670, while USD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 105.40.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 94.390.