Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Technology and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.41%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.85%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which rose 3.13% or 0.42 points to trade at 13.85 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 1.40% or 1.40 points to end at 101.16 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 1.39% or 2.57 points to 187.97 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which lost 0.29% or 0.40 points to trade at 135.41 in late trade. DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) declined 0.21% or 0.14 points to end at 65.93 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) shed 0.09% or 0.07 points to 76.48.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) which rose 19.63% to 357.48, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which was up 5.55% to settle at 16.360 and DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) which gained 4.29% to close at 34.99.
The worst performers were CBOE Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CBOE) which was down 2.09% to 100.79 in late trade, Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE:NEM) which lost 1.56% to settle at 37.83 and Allegion PLC (NYSE:ALLE) which was down 1.31% to 76.86 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Black Box Corporation (NASDAQ:BBOX) which rose 113.68% to 2.03, AC Immune Ltd (NASDAQ:ACIU) which was up 38.28% to settle at 12.86 and Xenetic Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:XBIO) which gained 22.45% to close at 5.290.
The worst performers were Regulus Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RGLS) which was down 52.13% to 0.350 in late trade, Real Goods Solar Inc (NASDAQ:RGSE) which lost 24.06% to settle at 0.4025 and China Lending Corp (NASDAQ:CLDC) which was down 23.93% to 2.48 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2232 to 809 and 132 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1721 rose and 825 declined, while 130 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 10.75% to 13.36.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.24% or 3.00 to $1255.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.29% or 0.94 to hit $73.88 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.41% or 0.32 to trade at $77.07 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.49% to 1.1747, while USD/JPY fell 0.21% to 110.43.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.41% at 93.74.