U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.61%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil&Gas, Technology and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.61%, while the S&P 500 index added 1.10%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.76%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM), which rose 5.71% or 8.92 points to trade at 165.09 at the close. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) added 4.86% or 8.71 points to end at 187.79 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 3.07% or 7.39 points to 248.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), which lost 4.48% or 6.31 points to trade at 134.45 in late trade. Merck&Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) declined 1.58% or 1.72 points to end at 106.87 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) shed 1.09% or 3.45 points to 313.81.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) which rose 10.97% to 160.27, Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) which was up 10.86% to settle at 69.01 and United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which gained 9.94% to close at 431.48.

The worst performers were Sherwin-Williams Co (NYSE:SHW) which was down 8.92% to 225.06 in late trade, McCormick&Company Incorporated (NYSE:MKC) which lost 5.80% to settle at 73.46 and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) which was down 4.48% to 134.45 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were BuzzFeed Inc (NASDAQ:BZFD) which rose 119.88% to 2.09, MicroAlgo Inc (NASDAQ:MLGO) which was up 64.20% to settle at 2.74 and COMSovereign Holding Corp (NASDAQ:COMS) which gained 58.84% to close at 0.12.

The worst performers were Panbela Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PBLA) which was down 40.59% to 1.61 in late trade, Village Farms International Inc (NASDAQ:VFF) which lost 37.35% to settle at 0.95 and Allied Healthcare Products Inc (NASDAQ:AHPI) which was down 36.28% to 0.72 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2051 to 985 and 120 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2131 rose and 1548 declined, while 190 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.83% to 18.73.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.66% or 12.75 to $1,929.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.27% or 1.02 to hit $81.17 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.75% or 1.51 to trade at $87.63 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.20% to 1.09, while USD/JPY rose 0.49% to 130.23.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.18% at 101.60.