U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.63%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.63% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.38%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.01%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM), which rose 3.27% or 10.15 points to trade at 320.93 at the close. Procter&Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) added 2.40% or 3.92 points to end at 167.33 and Merck&Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was up 1.80% or 1.82 points to 102.99 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 4.58% or 2.24 points to trade at 46.66 in late trade. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) declined 3.39% or 13.85 points to end at 394.36 and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) shed 0.91% or 1.92 points to 208.13.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Axon Enterprise Inc (NASDAQ:AXON) which rose 26.56% to 593.23, Insulet Corporation (NASDAQ:PODD) which was up 10.91% to settle at 271.71 and Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) which gained 9.36% to close at 91.51.

The worst performers were Akamai Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AKAM) which was down 13.45% to 90.36 in late trade, Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ:ABNB) which lost 8.92% to settle at 134.23 and Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) which was down 7.55% to 398.48 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Innodata Inc (NASDAQ:INOD) which rose 76.87% to 43.05, Sezzle Inc (NASDAQ:SEZL) which was up 67.68% to settle at 420.00 and Sonder Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SOND) which gained 70.85% to close at 4.63.

The worst performers were ProPhase Labs Inc (NASDAQ:PRPH) which was down 48.24% to 0.74 in late trade, Earlyworks Co Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:ELWS) which lost 44.00% to settle at 3.78 and Maravai Lifesciences Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MRVI) which was down 37.24% to 4.92 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1612 to 1195 and 35 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1658 rose and 1615 declined, while 74 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 15.20 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.40% or 10.90 to $2,694.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 2.54% or 1.84 to hit $70.52 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 2.12% or 1.60 to trade at $74.03 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.83% to 1.07, while USD/JPY fell 0.19% to 152.64.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.50% at 104.89.