Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.74% to hit a new 3-month high, while the S&P 500 index added 1.09%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.61%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 3.10% or 5.97 points to trade at 198.50 at the close. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) added 3.06% or 3.13 points to end at 105.55 and DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) was up 3.00% or 1.58 points to 54.24 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), which lost 0.76% or 0.34 points to trade at 45.24 in late trade. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 0.22% or 0.38 points to end at 170.42 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) gained 0.02% or 0.02 points to 98.48.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL) which rose 7.51% to 13.74, American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) which was up 5.30% to settle at 42.32 and Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC) which gained 4.72% to close at 10.87.
The worst performers were Newell Brands Inc (NASDAQ:NWL) which was down 20.89% to 17.16 in late trade, Mattel Inc (NASDAQ:MAT) which lost 18.27% to settle at 13.82 and Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT) which was down 3.95% to 39.10 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Sky Solar Holdings Adr Rep 8 (NASDAQ:SKYS) which rose 90.81% to 1.080, Ideal Power Inc (NASDAQ:IPWR) which was up 37.34% to settle at 0.522 and Optical Cable Corporation (NASDAQ:OCC) which gained 37.11% to close at 5.210.
The worst performers were Achaogen Inc (NASDAQ:AKAO) which was down 35.37% to 0.918 in late trade, Marin Software Inc (NASDAQ:MRIN) which lost 33.33% to settle at 4.400 and Arcimoto Inc (NASDAQ:FUV) which was down 31.27% to 4.88 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2320 to 682 and 109 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1873 rose and 755 declined, while 97 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 8.08% to 14.91 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.82% or 10.75 to $1324.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.44% or 1.33 to hit $55.74 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 2.68% or 1.73 to trade at $66.30 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.07% to 1.1291, while USD/JPY fell 0.06% to 110.41.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 96.738.