U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.80%

Investing.com – U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods sectors led shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.80%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.17%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 2.05%.

The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which rose 3.96% or 8.33 points to trade at 218.74 at the close. Meanwhile, Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) added 2.98% or 3.80 points to end at 131.21 and Visa Inc Class A (NYSE:V) was up 2.65% or 5.65 points to 219.10 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which fell 2.39% or 1.25 points to trade at 51.11 at the close. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) declined 1.11% or 1.97 points to end at 174.83 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) was down 0.67% or 0.42 points to 62.42.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Match Group Inc (NASDAQ:MTCH) which rose 7.80% to 102.69, EPAM Systems Inc (NYSE:EPAM) which was up 7.76% to settle at 294.38 and HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) which gained 7.55% to close at 37.09.

The worst performers were FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) which was down 3.97% to 218.93 in late trade, Cincinnati Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CINF) which lost 3.27% to settle at 127.94 and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which was down 3.05% to 56.24 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Connect Biopharma Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:CNTB) which rose 54.21% to 4.95, Rezolute Inc (NASDAQ:RZLT) which was up 52.42% to settle at 4.10 and Redbox Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:RDBX) which gained 50.28% to close at 2.69.

The worst performers were Bt Brands Inc (NASDAQ:BTBD) which was down 39.22% to 1.55 in late trade, Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:NEPT) which lost 31.63% to settle at 0.21 and Nymox Pharmaceutical Corp (NASDAQ:NYMX) which was down 28.57% to 1.35 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 2099 to 1086 and 99 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2592 rose and 1223 declined, while 148 ended unchanged.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.01% to 23.87 a new 1-month low.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.25% or 24.20 to $1,919.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.84% or 1.89 to hit $104.87 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.13% or 1.21 to trade at $107.85 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.36% to 1.10, while USD/JPY rose 0.46% to 119.14.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.25% at 98.22.