U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.99%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.99%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.69%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.49%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were DowDuPont Inc (NYSE: DWDP ), which rose 2.79% or 1.78 points to trade at 65.47 at the close. Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) added 2.71% or 8.89 points to end at 336.33 and Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX ) was up 2.45% or 2.80 points to 117.28 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE ), which lost 1.13% or 0.41 points to trade at 35.72 in late trade. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG ) declined 0.32% or 0.25 points to end at 78.80 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE: MRK ) shed 0.06% or 0.03 points to 54.51.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Navient Corp (NASDAQ: NAVI ) which rose 6.39% to 13.66, Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO ) which was up 5.76% to settle at 16.80 and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK ) which gained 5.67% to close at 3.075.

The worst performers were Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MU ) which was down 6.65% to 49.84 in late trade, Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ: LRCX ) which lost 3.30% to settle at 195.02 and Under Armour Inc C (NYSE: UA ) which was down 2.88% to 15.190 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were LongFin Corp Class A (NASDAQ: LFIN ) which rose 64.86% to 19.14, Net Element Inc (NASDAQ: NETE ) which was up 32.98% to settle at 8.8700 and Westmoreland Coal Company (NASDAQ: WLB ) which gained 27.92% to close at 0.32.

The worst performers were Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: CNAT ) which was down 31.45% to 4.120 in late trade, Check Cap Ltd (NASDAQ: CHEK ) which lost 22.79% to settle at 4.200 and Boxlight Corp Class A (NASDAQ: BOXL ) which was down 18.37% to 3.51 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2209 to 899 and 51 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1495 rose and 1036 declined, while 129 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.73% to 18.91.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.78% or 10.40 to $1329.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.43% or 0.27 to hit $63.64 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.59% or 0.40 to trade at $68.42 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.32% to 1.2238, while USD/JPY rose 0.58% to 107.40.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.40% at 90.14.