U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.68% By Investing.com

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

At the close in NYSE, the rose 2.68%, while the index added 3.06%, and the index added 3.34%.

The best performers of the session on the were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:), which rose 7.44% or 12.87 points to trade at 185.92 at the close. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:) added 5.79% or 16.58 points to end at 302.75 and Boeing Co (NYSE:) was up 5.64% or 7.56 points to 141.53 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:), which fell 2.17% or 1.13 points to trade at 50.96 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:) declined 0.83% or 4.17 points to end at 495.64 and Walmart Inc (NYSE:) was up 0.08% or 0.10 points to 123.72.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:) which rose 15.77% to 41.76, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:) which was up 15.36% to settle at 13.22 and Penn National Gaming Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 12.66% to close at 32.12.

The worst performers were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:) which was down 2.17% to 50.96 in late trade, Citrix Systems Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 1.86% to settle at 96.59 and SolarEdge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 1.78% to 286.34 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were USA Truck Inc (NASDAQ:) which rose 112.62% to 31.00, Benitec Biopharma Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:) which was up 64.86% to settle at 1.22 and Toughbuilt Industries Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 55.17% to close at 2.70.

The worst performers were Tenax Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 46.86% to 0.31 in late trade, Panbela Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 42.80% to settle at 0.61 and Meta Materials Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 38.74% to 1.17 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 2629 to 516 and 96 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2500 rose and 1274 declined, while 187 ended unchanged.

Shares in USA Truck Inc (NASDAQ:) rose to 5-year highs; rising 112.62% or 16.42 to 31.00. Shares in Tenax Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:) fell to all time lows; down 46.86% or 0.27 to 0.31. Shares in Panbela Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:) fell to all time lows; losing 42.80% or 0.46 to 0.61. Shares in Meta Materials Inc (NASDAQ:) fell to 52-week lows; losing 38.74% or 0.74 to 1.17.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.27% to 27.23.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.11% or 2.05 to $1,827.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 3.17% or 3.31 to hit $107.58 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 2.76% or 3.04 to trade at $113.09 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.29% to 1.06, while USD/JPY rose 0.20% to 135.21.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.29% at 103.89.