Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Industrials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.68%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.98%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.39%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 6.14% or 5.01 points to trade at 86.55 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 4.06% or 7.96 points to end at 204.09 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 2.50% or 3.72 points to 152.57 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Visa Inc Class A (NYSE:V), which lost 2.75% or 5.94 points to trade at 209.84 in late trade. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) declined 1.92% or 3.42 points to end at 174.61 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shed 0.54% or 0.89 points to 162.85.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Smith AO Corporation (NYSE:AOS) which rose 10.50% to 70.69, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) which was up 8.70% to settle at 16.86 and Nielsen Holdings PLC (NYSE:NLSN) which gained 6.54% to close at 20.69.
The worst performers were Flowserve Corporation (NYSE:FLS) which was down 8.55% to 32.94 in late trade, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) which lost 7.60% to settle at 358.64 and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) which was down 6.76% to 72.41 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were HCW Biologics Inc (NASDAQ:HCWB) which rose 61.99% to 4.73, Glimpse Group Inc (NASDAQ:VRAR) which was up 51.60% to settle at 14.72 and Meten Edtechx Education Group Ltd (NASDAQ:METX) which gained 44.34% to close at 0.5990.
The worst performers were CohBar Inc (NASDAQ:CWBR) which was down 37.83% to 0.5595 in late trade, Brickell Biotech Inc (NASDAQ:BBI) which lost 25.53% to settle at 0.3990 and Brightcove Inc (NASDAQ:BCOV) which was down 20.74% to 9.40 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2252 to 985 and 122 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2665 rose and 992 declined, while 187 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.65% to 16.53.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.10% or 1.80 to $1800.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.56% or 0.46 to hit $83.12 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $83.91 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.67% to 1.1681, while USD/JPY fell 0.21% to 113.57.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.48% at 93.352.