Investing.com – United States stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Technology, Health Care and Industrials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.43%, while the S&P 500 index gained 2.40%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 2.24%.
The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), which rose 3.78% or 5.75 points to trade at 157.68 at the close. Meanwhile, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 3.63% or 1.66 points to end at 47.40 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) was up 3.56% or 6.58 points to 191.61 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), which rose 0.49% or 0.61 points to trade at 125.67 at the close. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) added 1.31% or 0.61 points to end at 47.05 and Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) was up 1.35% or 1.23 points to 92.61.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) which rose 10.18% to 45.35, Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE:OI) which was up 6.70% to settle at 26.28 and First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) which gained 6.52% to close at 45.11.
The worst performers were Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) which was down 4.23% to 71.38 in late trade, Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC) which lost 2.94% to settle at 60.09 and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL) which was down 2.69% to 79.35 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ:COOL) which rose 53.27% to 0.904, FreeSeas Inc (NASDAQ:FREE) which was up 43.42% to settle at 0.109 and Ivanhoe Energy Inc (NASDAQ:IVAN) which gained 29.50% to close at 0.622.
The worst performers were Silicon Image Inc (NASDAQ:SIMG) which was down 27.15% to 4.91 in late trade, Mid-Con Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:MCEP) which lost 18.51% to settle at 6.03 and China Natural Resources Inc (NASDAQ:CHNR) which was down 15.71% to 2.36 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 2417 to 382 and 1 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2071 rose and 703 declined, while 7 ended unchanged.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 13.84% to 16.75.
Gold for February delivery was up 0.30% or 3.60 to $1198.10 a troy ounce.
Elsewhere in commodities trading, crude oil for delivery in February fell 3.18% or 1.80 to hit $54.98 a barrel, while the February brent oil contract fell 2.54% or 1.55 to trade at $59.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.46% to 1.2286, while USD/JPY rose 0.13% to 118.81.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.20% at 89.45.