U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.75%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials , Technology and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.75% to hit a new 1-month high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.85%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.29%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ), which rose 3.31% or 5.06 points to trade at 157.76 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) added 3.11% or 4.13 points to end at 136.86 and DowDuPont Inc (NYSE: DWDP ) was up 2.54% or 1.43 points to 57.76 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ), which lost 5.47% or 2.72 points to trade at 47.04 in late trade. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD ) declined 1.80% or 3.37 points to end at 184.00 and Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ) shed 1.44% or 1.42 points to 96.94.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC ) which rose 7.52% to 43.16, Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX ) which was up 6.57% to settle at 43.66 and Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MU ) which gained 6.48% to close at 38.96.

The worst performers were ResMed Inc (NYSE: RMD ) which was down 19.39% to 94.56 in late trade, Pacific Gas & Electric Co (NYSE: PCG ) which lost 15.63% to settle at 11.77 and AbbVie Inc (NYSE: ABBV ) which was down 6.22% to 80.540 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were HyreCar (NASDAQ: HYRE ) which rose 28.81% to 4.56, TSR Inc (NASDAQ: TSRI ) which was up 22.58% to settle at 6.100 and Check Cap Ltd (NASDAQ: CHEK ) which gained 23.55% to close at 3.410.

The worst performers were Midatech Pharma PLC (NASDAQ: MTP ) which was down 22.38% to 0.127 in late trade, Toughbuilt Industries Inc (NASDAQ: TBLT ) which lost 16.25% to settle at 3.04 and Recon Technology Ltd (NASDAQ: RCON ) which was down 15.83% to 1.010 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2307 to 718 and 101 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1853 rose and 765 declined, while 87 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.78% to 17.42 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 1.73% or 22.15 to $1301.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.85% or 0.45 to hit $53.58 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.72% or 0.44 to trade at $61.53 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.95% to 1.1413, while USD/JPY fell 0.14% to 109.47.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.89% at 95.440.