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 , Industrials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.75%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.96%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ), which rose 2.88% or 3.89 points to trade at 139.06 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) added 2.37% or 1.20 points to end at 51.75 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) was up 2.13% or 2.69 points to 128.90 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ), which lost 0.22% or 0.45 points to trade at 200.56 in late trade. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) declined 0.22% or 0.50 points to end at 231.95 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO ) 0.00% or 0.00 points to 54.94.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Newell Brands Inc (NASDAQ: NWL ) which rose 13.52% to 16.63, Flowserve Corporation (NYSE: FLS ) which was up 9.34% to settle at 52.00 and Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ: MNST ) which gained 8.83% to close at 63.11.
The worst performers were Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp Class A (NASDAQ: CTSH ) which was down 11.05% to 59.25 in late trade, Stericycle Inc (NASDAQ: SRCL ) which lost 9.15% to settle at 52.01 and Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ: ATVI ) which was down 4.84% to 47.15 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Evine Live Inc (NASDAQ: EVLV ) which rose 66.39% to 0.609, Durect Corporation (NASDAQ: DRRX ) which was up 49.01% to settle at 0.790 and Zix Corporation (NASDAQ: ZIXI ) which gained 34.63% to close at 11.080.
The worst performers were Guardion Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: GHSI ) which was down 24.10% to 1.6100 in late trade, Diffusion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: DFFN ) which lost 22.20% to settle at 4.5900 and Harvard Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ: HBIO ) which was down 21.87% to 2.930 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2359 to 645 and 87 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2072 rose and 582 declined, while 77 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 10.75% to 12.87.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.65% or 8.30 to $1280.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.08% or 0.05 to hit $61.86 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.11% or 0.08 to trade at $70.83 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.24% to 1.1202, while USD/JPY fell 0.35% to 111.11.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.40% at 97.197.

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