Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Basic Materials and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.30% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 1.13%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.98%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 3.61% or 12.94 points to trade at 371.88 at the close. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) added 3.22% or 4.86 points to end at 155.80 and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) was up 3.19% or 4.74 points to 153.26 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which lost 0.31% or 0.75 points to trade at 245.05 in late trade. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) declined 0.17% or 0.13 points to end at 77.99 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) gained 0.04% or 0.05 points to 137.03.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) which rose 6.81% to 18.66, Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN) which was up 6.66% to settle at 36.01 and Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) which gained 6.19% to close at 122.40.
The worst performers were Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) which was down 2.99% to 358.02 in late trade, ResMed Inc (NYSE:RMD) which lost 1.23% to settle at 247.65 and Baxter International Inc (NYSE:BAX) which was down 1.12% to 80.42 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were SGOCO Group Ltd (NASDAQ:SGOC) which rose 279.07% to 9.780, Stampscom Inc (NASDAQ:STMP) which was up 63.95% to settle at 324.17 and Tempest Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TPST) which gained 49.38% to close at 15.6700.
The worst performers were Nova Lifestyle I (NASDAQ:NVFY) which was down 27.69% to 4.700 in late trade, Sigilon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SGTX) which lost 25.65% to settle at 6.87 and Alterity Therapeutics Ltd (NASDAQ:ATHE) which was down 18.32% to 1.6500 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2559 to 622 and 109 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2690 rose and 764 declined, while 143 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 14.84% to 16.18.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.47% or 8.45 to $1808.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 2.37% or 1.73 to hit $74.67 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 2.02% or 1.50 to trade at $75.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.32% to 1.1880, while USD/JPY rose 0.31% to 110.12.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.33% at 92.097.