U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.68%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.68%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.98%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.39%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE: MRK ), which rose 6.14% or 5.01 points to trade at 86.55 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) added 4.06% or 7.96 points to end at 204.09 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ) was up 2.50% or 3.72 points to 152.57 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Visa Inc Class A (NYSE: V ), which lost 2.75% or 5.94 points to trade at 209.84 in late trade. American Express Company (NYSE: AXP ) declined 1.92% or 3.42 points to end at 174.61 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) shed 0.54% or 0.89 points to 162.85.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Smith AO Corporation (NYSE: AOS ) which rose 10.50% to 70.69, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F ) which was up 8.70% to settle at 16.86 and Nielsen Holdings PLC (NYSE: NLSN ) which gained 6.54% to close at 20.69.

The worst performers were Flowserve Corporation (NYSE: FLS ) which was down 8.55% to 32.94 in late trade, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC ) which lost 7.60% to settle at 358.64 and eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY ) which was down 6.76% to 72.41 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were HCW Biologics Inc (NASDAQ: HCWB ) which rose 61.99% to 4.73, Glimpse Group Inc (NASDAQ: VRAR ) which was up 51.60% to settle at 14.72 and Meten Edtechx Education Group Ltd (NASDAQ: METX ) which gained 44.34% to close at 0.5990.

The worst performers were CohBar Inc (NASDAQ: CWBR ) which was down 37.83% to 0.5595 in late trade, Brickell Biotech Inc (NASDAQ: BBI ) which lost 25.53% to settle at 0.3990 and Brightcove Inc (NASDAQ: BCOV ) which was down 20.74% to 9.40 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2252 to 985 and 122 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2665 rose and 992 declined, while 187 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.65% to 16.53.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.10% or 1.80 to $1800.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.56% or 0.46 to hit $83.12 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $83.91 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.67% to 1.1681, while USD/JPY fell 0.21% to 113.57.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.48% at 93.352.