Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Telecoms and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.74%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), which rose 2.07% or 1.10 points to trade at 54.17 at the close. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) added 1.74% or 1.96 points to end at 114.73 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was up 1.70% or 4.24 points to 252.94 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 3.27% or 1.66 points to trade at 49.11 in late trade. 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) declined 2.33% or 4.15 points to end at 173.98 and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) shed 1.52% or 1.91 points to 123.72.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Universal Health Services Inc (NYSE:UHS) which rose 10.89% to 151.89, Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) which was up 10.45% to settle at 1250.41 and Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) which gained 9.62% to close at 1245.22.
The worst performers were Mohawk Industries Inc (NYSE:MHK) which was down 17.60% to 128.84 in late trade, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) which lost 12.07% to settle at 19.16 and Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) which was down 5.35% to 120.77 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Smith Micro Software Inc (NASDAQ:SMSI) which rose 66.67% to 5.7500, Harvard Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ:HBIO) which was up 44.38% to settle at 2.700 and Solid Biosciences LLC (NASDAQ:SLDB) which gained 34.41% to close at 5.82.
The worst performers were Neuralstem Inc (NASDAQ:CUR) which was down 35.75% to 2.3900 in late trade, Merit Medical Systems Inc (NASDAQ:MMSI) which lost 25.24% to settle at 41.00 and Carbonite Inc (NASDAQ:CARB) which was down 24.64% to 18.01 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1991 to 966 and 125 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1850 rose and 804 declined, while 99 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.55% to 12.16.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.28% or 3.90 to $1418.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.30% or 0.17 to hit $56.19 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.14% or 0.09 to trade at $63.30 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.16% to 1.1127, while USD/JPY rose 0.05% to 108.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.18% at 97.725.