Investing.com -- U.S. stocks inched higher on Thursday rebounding from a massive sell-off one session earlier, as a spike in crude prices and an improved outlook of financial crises in Greece and China helped bolster the major indices.
One day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 1.5% amid a three and a half hour halt to trading at the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow rallied sharply on Thursday morning before paring most of the gains near the close. The Dow shot up at Thursday's open surging 275 points higher in the morning session, before losing steam in afternoon trading, closing at 17,548.62, up 33.20 or 0.19%. Officials from the NYSE confirmed on Thursday that a technical glitch from the rollout of new software triggered the suspension of trading.
The NASDAQ Composite index and the S&P Composite index also closed moderately higher on a choppy day of trading. The NASDAQ gained 12.64 or 0.26% to 4,922.40, in spite of significant losses from Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), while the S&P 500 added 4.63 or 0.23% to 2,051.31, as six of 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Financials, Health Care and Energy industries led, each gaining at least 0.45%.
PG shares fell mildly on Thursday after the Cincinnati-based multinational consumer goods company announced that it agreed to sell its beauty division to COTY in a deal valued at $12.5 billion. Shares in PG dipped 0.33 or 0.41% to 80.66. Coty, a global beauty products manufacturer founded in Paris in 1904, saw it shares fall nearly 5% to 29.94.
The top performer on the Dow was The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which gained 1.54 or 1.55% to 100.30. The worst performer was Apple, which fell 2.27 or 1.85% to 120.30.
The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NYSE:WBA), which surged 4.07 or 4.74% to 89.98, after the largest pharmacy chain in the U.S. raised its full-year profit outlook. The worst performer was Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR), which fell 1.70 or 3.32% to 49.50.
Walgreen's was also the top performer on the S&P 500, just ahead of Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI), which gained 6.62 or 4.40% to 157.06, amid multiple reports that the Connecticut-based health care insurer is moving closer to a mega merger with Indianapolis-based Anthem. The deal could be comparable with a $37 billion merger between Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) and Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) consummated last week.
Altera was also the worst performer on the S&P 500, just below Joy Global Inc (NYSE:JOY), which fell 0.99 or 3.06% to 31.35.
On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 1,836 to 1,304 margin.