U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.68%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials , Technology and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.68%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 3.06%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 3.34%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM ), which rose 7.44% or 12.87 points to trade at 185.92 at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) added 5.79% or 16.58 points to end at 302.75 and Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) was up 5.64% or 7.56 points to 141.53 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ), which lost 2.17% or 1.13 points to trade at 50.96 in late trade. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) declined 0.83% or 4.17 points to end at 495.64 and Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ) gained 0.08% or 0.10 points to 123.72.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE: RCL ) which rose 15.77% to 41.76, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NCLH ) which was up 15.36% to settle at 13.22 and Penn National Gaming Inc (NASDAQ: PENN ) which gained 12.66% to close at 32.12.

The worst performers were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ) which was down 2.17% to 50.96 in late trade, Citrix Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CTXS ) which lost 1.86% to settle at 96.59 and SolarEdge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: SEDG ) which was down 1.78% to 286.34 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were USA Truck Inc (NASDAQ: USAK ) which rose 112.62% to 31.00, Benitec Biopharma Ltd ADR (NASDAQ: BNTC ) which was up 64.86% to settle at 1.22 and Toughbuilt Industries Inc (NASDAQ: TBLT ) which gained 55.17% to close at 2.70.

The worst performers were Tenax Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: TENX ) which was down 46.86% to 0.31 in late trade, Panbela Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PBLA ) which lost 42.80% to settle at 0.61 and Meta Materials Inc (NASDAQ: MMAT ) which was down 38.74% to 1.17 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2637 to 523 and 109 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2505 rose and 1264 declined, while 203 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.27% to 27.23.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.11% or 2.05 to $1,827.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 3.17% or 3.31 to hit $107.58 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 2.77% or 3.05 to trade at $113.10 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.29% to 1.06, while USD/JPY rose 0.21% to 135.21.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.29% at 103.89.