U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.24%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Oil & Gas , Telecoms and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.24%, while the S&P 500 index gained 2.28%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.72%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX ), which rose 11.03% or 7.56 points to trade at 76.12 at the close. Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM ) added 7.65% or 2.87 points to end at 40.40 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) was up 4.84% or 5.39 points to 116.74 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA ), which lost 6.30% or 2.71 points to trade at 40.32 in late trade. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX ) declined 5.87% or 5.36 points to end at 86.01 and Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) shed 5.68% or 7.43 points to 123.27.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY ) which rose 18.90% to 12.77, Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA ) which was up 16.67% to settle at 4.69 and Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FANG ) which gained 15.88% to close at 29.05.

The worst performers were Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NCLH ) which was down 12.04% to 8.40 in late trade, Arconic Inc (NYSE: ARNC ) which lost 10.26% to settle at 6.21 and Macerich Company (NYSE: MAC ) which was down 9.87% to 5.02 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Payment Data Systems Inc (NASDAQ: USIO ) which rose 44.44% to 1.560, Cellect Biotechnology Ltd (NASDAQ: APOP ) which was up 42.75% to settle at 1.970 and EuroDry Ltd (NASDAQ: EDRY ) which gained 36.10% to close at 5.58.

The worst performers were Luckin Coffee (NASDAQ: LK ) which was down 75.57% to 6.40 in late trade, Golar LNG Partners LP (NASDAQ: GMLP ) which lost 44.86% to settle at 1.77 and Safe-T Group Ltd ADR (NASDAQ: SFET ) which was down 38.07% to 1.35 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1719 to 1128 and 60 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1447 rose and 1200 declined, while 72 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 10.78% to 50.91.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 2.76% or 43.95 to $1635.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 21.76% or 4.42 to hit $24.73 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $29.63 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.01% to 1.0857, while USD/JPY fell 0.04% to 107.86.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.46% at 100.208.