U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.18%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.18%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.12%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.01%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD ), which rose 2.23% or 3.44 points to trade at 157.49 at the close. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM ) added 0.93% or 0.76 points to end at 82.19 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ) was up 0.89% or 1.44 points to 162.36 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS ), which lost 1.20% or 1.19 points to trade at 98.05 in late trade. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX ) declined 1.14% or 1.34 points to end at 115.84 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ) shed 0.62% or 0.95 points to 153.28.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were McCormick & Company Incorporated (NYSE: MKC ) which rose 5.39% to 101.65, AbbVie Inc (NYSE: ABBV ) which was up 4.97% to settle at 88.960 and Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ: AMAT ) which gained 3.64% to close at 50.62.

The worst performers were Navient Corp (NASDAQ: NAVI ) which was down 3.93% to 14.92 in late trade, TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ: TRIP ) which lost 3.53% to settle at 40.46 and Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: GILD ) which was down 3.52% to 80.91 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Alliance MMA Inc (NASDAQ: AMMA ) which rose 87.50% to 2.40, Ominto Inc (NASDAQ: OMNT ) which was up 66.29% to settle at 5.8200 and Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: ZYNE ) which gained 52.50% to close at 9.44.

The worst performers were DexCom Inc (NASDAQ: DXCM ) which was down 32.65% to 45.44 in late trade, Health Insurance Innovations Inc (NASDAQ: HIIQ ) which lost 24.19% to settle at 14.100 and Sphere 3D Corp (NASDAQ: ANY ) which was down 23.99% to 2.250 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1777 to 1288 and 145 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1374 rose and 1094 declined, while 172 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.04% to 9.57.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.19% or 2.39 to $1290.19 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.07% or 0.56 to hit $51.58 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.57% or 0.33 to trade at $57.24 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.30% to 1.1782, while USD/JPY fell 0.42% to 112.37.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.30% at 92.99.