Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Technology and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.82%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.67%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.78%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 2.36% or 3.12 points to trade at 135.49 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) added 2.08% or 5.03 points to end at 247.26 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was up 1.86% or 6.98 points to 381.42 in late trade.
Biggest losers included 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), which lost 0.36% or 0.75 points to trade at 207.78 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) added 0.08% or 0.05 points to end at 59.13 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) gained 0.07% or 0.06 points to 80.80.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX) which rose 9.61% to 69.80, Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) which was up 7.88% to settle at 94.34 and Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) which gained 5.06% to close at 41.33.
The worst performers were PVH Corp (NYSE:PVH) which was down 4.17% to 121.95 in late trade, Helmerich & Payne Inc (NYSE:HP) which lost 2.30% to settle at 55.56 and Capri Holdings Ltd (NYSE:CPRI) which was down 1.93% to 45.75 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Estre USA Inc Class A (NASDAQ:ESTR) which rose 38.46% to 1.62, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (NASDAQ:CSSE) which was up 30.11% to settle at 12.36 and Applied DNA Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:APDN) which gained 31.97% to close at 0.713.
The worst performers were ENDRA Life Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:NDRA) which was down 41.55% to 1.660 in late trade, Dropcar Inc (NASDAQ:DCAR) which lost 33.18% to settle at 2.960 and Eltek Ltd (NASDAQ:ELTK) which was down 25.85% to 1.629 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1796 to 1173 and 127 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1477 rose and 1168 declined, while 84 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.99% to 13.71.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.14% or 1.85 to $1297.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.50% or 0.89 to hit $60.19 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.80% or 0.54 to trade at $67.64 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.02% to 1.1218, while USD/JPY rose 0.19% to 110.83.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 96.820.