U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.22%

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

At the close in NYSE, the rose 1.22%, while the index gained 0.91%, and the index gained 1.00%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the were 3M Company (NYSE:), which rose 4.32% or 7.10 points to trade at 171.47 at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:) added 3.44% or 7.47 points to end at 224.61 and Boeing Co (NYSE:) was up 2.43% or 8.41 points to 354.09 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:), which lost 0.80% or 0.47 points to trade at 58.63 in late trade. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:) declined 0.34% or 0.43 points to end at 124.19 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:) shed 0.26% or 0.73 points to 280.19.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Ulta Beauty Inc (NASDAQ:) which rose 11.09% to 262.20, Apache Corporation (NYSE:) which was up 7.59% to settle at 19.99 and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 6.02% to close at 113.89.

The worst performers were Ball Corporation (NYSE:) which was down 3.92% to 63.55 in late trade, DR Horton Inc (NYSE:) which lost 2.80% to settle at 54.20 and Cooper Companies Inc (NYSE:) which was down 1.81% to 307.19 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were KLX Energy Services Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:) which rose 30.73% to 5.53, Wellesley Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ:) which was up 28.59% to settle at 42.100 and Cancer Genetics Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 26.86% to close at 6.990.

The worst performers were Correvio Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:) which was down 39.81% to 1.300 in late trade, Taronis Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 21.94% to settle at 1.210 and Axcella Health Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 20.04% to 3.59 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2102 to 730 and 76 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1831 rose and 826 declined, while 82 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.20% to 13.62.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.25% or 18.55 to $1464.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.20% or 0.70 to hit $59.13 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.55% or 0.98 to trade at $64.37 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.39% to 1.1059, while USD/JPY fell 0.15% to 108.58.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.28% at 97.643.