U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.49%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Goods , Basic Materials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.49% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.58%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.84%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ), which rose 2.69% or 4.03 points to trade at 153.70 at the close. Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ) added 1.62% or 4.38 points to end at 273.97 and Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE ) was up 1.55% or 2.14 points to 140.48 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ), which lost 2.07% or 4.67 points to trade at 221.20 in late trade. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) declined 0.92% or 0.47 points to end at 50.65 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM ) shed 0.85% or 1.02 points to 119.65.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR ) which rose 7.70% to 19.02, Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN ) which was up 7.62% to settle at 79.95 and Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN ) which gained 6.87% to close at 264.44.

The worst performers were Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE: MPC ) which was down 2.59% to 40.57 in late trade, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc (NYSE: HII ) which lost 2.38% to settle at 170.47 and AT&T Inc (NYSE: T ) which was down 2.25% to 29.61 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Mingzhu Logistics Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ: YGMZ ) which rose 310.89% to 16.60, NXT-ID Inc (NASDAQ: NXTD ) which was up 53.68% to settle at 1.4200 and Avenue Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: ATXI ) which gained 48.24% to close at 5.47.

The worst performers were Triterras Inc (NASDAQ: TRIT ) which was down 31.29% to 9.07 in late trade, Biocardia Inc (NASDAQ: BCDA ) which lost 26.10% to settle at 4.29 and Mediaco Holding Inc (NASDAQ: MDIA ) which was down 20.97% to 2.85 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2012 to 1080 and 80 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1989 rose and 999 declined, while 89 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.53% to 21.93.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 1.73% or 32.25 to $1891.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.34% or 0.64 to hit $48.46 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.94% or 0.48 to trade at $51.56 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.59% to 1.2268, while USD/JPY fell 0.35% to 103.11.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.72% at 89.705.