U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.42%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology , Financials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.42%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.42%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ), which rose 2.80% or 6.19 points to trade at 227.01 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE: MRK ) added 2.73% or 2.26 points to end at 85.00 and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE: TRV ) was up 2.28% or 3.23 points to 144.96 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW ), which added 0.07% or 0.03 points to trade at 45.34 in late trade. 3M Company (NYSE: MMM ) added 0.38% or 0.59 points to end at 155.82 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ) gained 0.49% or 1.12 points to 227.93.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Skyworks Solutions Inc (NASDAQ: SWKS ) which rose 4.37% to 80.64, Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR ) which was up 4.20% to settle at 18.96 and Chubb Ltd (NYSE: CB ) which gained 3.59% to close at 162.06.
The worst performers were HP Inc (NYSE: HPQ ) which was down 9.57% to 16.64 in late trade, Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA ) which lost 5.18% to settle at 22.16 and Corteva Inc (NYSE: CTVA ) which was down 3.68% to 25.8900 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: TTNP ) which rose 74.60% to 0.4400, Electrocore LLC (NASDAQ: ECOR ) which was up 34.85% to settle at 2.67 and Microvision Inc (NASDAQ: MVIS ) which gained 27.61% to close at 0.741.
The worst performers were Arbutus Biopharma Corp (NASDAQ: ABUS ) which was down 28.67% to 1.020 in late trade, Ovid Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: OVID ) which lost 26.76% to settle at 2.40 and Arcimoto Inc (NASDAQ: FUV ) which was down 16.67% to 2.35 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2129 to 713 and 99 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1755 rose and 863 declined, while 86 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 10.88% to 17.04.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.23% or 3.55 to $1510.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 1.01% or 0.53 to hit $52.98 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.37% or 0.79 to trade at $58.50 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.13% to 1.0978, while USD/JPY rose 0.04% to 106.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 98.510.

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