Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Utilities and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.64%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.95%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.62%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which rose 3.34% or 5.60 points to trade at 173.05 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 3.19% or 2.84 points to end at 92.00 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) was up 2.94% or 3.08 points to 108.00 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which lost 4.88% or 9.16 points to trade at 178.67 in late trade. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) declined 3.68% or 5.44 points to end at 142.43 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) shed 2.45% or 1.28 points to 51.06.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ:ADSK) which rose 8.43% to 183.41, FactSet Research Systems Inc (NYSE:FDS) which was up 8.01% to settle at 388.76 and Ceridian HCM Holding Inc (NYSE:CDAY) which gained 7.24% to close at 48.28.
The worst performers were The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) which was down 9.57% to 45.24 in late trade, CF Industries Holdings Inc (NYSE:CF) which lost 9.01% to settle at 80.60 and Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) which was down 7.60% to 104.53 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment (NASDAQ:BHAT) which rose 263.03% to 2.73, FStar Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FSTX) which was up 59.80% to settle at 6.36 and TDH Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PETZ) which gained 54.74% to close at 2.94.
The worst performers were Applied Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:APLT) which was down 28.97% to 0.76 in late trade, Advent Technologies Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ADN) which lost 21.91% to settle at 2.53 and Aeroclean Technologies LLC (NASDAQ:AERC) which was down 19.78% to 11.88 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1875 to 1306 and 104 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2420 rose and 1359 declined, while 208 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.41% to 29.07.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.65% or 11.95 to $1,826.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.85% or 1.96 to hit $104.23 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.58% or 1.77 to trade at $109.97 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.41% to 1.05, while USD/JPY fell 0.94% to 134.99.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.17% at 104.16.