Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Utilities, Technology and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.21%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.28%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.65%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which rose 2.06% or 4.53 points to trade at 224.95 at the close. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) added 1.17% or 0.85 points to end at 73.81 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) was up 1.00% or 0.84 points to 84.54 in late trade.
Biggest losers included DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP), which lost 2.33% or 1.56 points to trade at 65.33 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 0.50% or 1.14 points to end at 227.74 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) shed 0.48% or 0.40 points to 82.86.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) which rose 3.70% to 406.00, Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC) which was up 2.90% to settle at 17.01 and Alaska Air Group Inc (NYSE:ALK) which gained 2.77% to close at 68.98.
The worst performers were ConAgra Foods Inc (NYSE:CAG) which was down 8.54% to 32.98 in late trade, Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) which lost 5.44% to settle at 36.86 and Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which was down 4.84% to 63.74 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were SSLJ.com Ltd Class A (NASDAQ:SSLJ) which rose 70.25% to 0.8700, Achieve Life Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:ACHV) which was up 39.56% to settle at 3.8100 and Rxi Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ:RXII) which gained 28.35% to close at 1.6300.
The worst performers were Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) which was down 62.92% to 2.310 in late trade, Sky Solar Holdings Adr Rep 8 (NASDAQ:SKYS) which lost 43.90% to settle at 0.460 and Altimmune Inc (NASDAQ:ALT) which was down 27.62% to 8.780 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1671 to 1346 and 137 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1285 rose and 1277 declined, while 149 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.57% to 12.43.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.99% or 11.90 to $1187.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.77% or 0.55 to hit $72.12 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.61% or 0.49 to trade at $81.28 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.82% to 1.1644, while USD/JPY rose 0.58% to 113.37.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.76% at 94.59.