U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.01%

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

At the close in NYSE, the gained 0.01%, while the index gained 0.36%, and the index added 0.76%.

The best performers of the session on the were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:), which rose 2.55% or 7.26 points to trade at 291.60 at the close. Meanwhile, Walmart Inc (NYSE:) added 0.76% or 1.13 points to end at 150.80 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:) was up 0.70% or 3.58 points to 512.81 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:), which fell 2.04% or 4.36 points to trade at 209.17 at the close. Salesforce Inc (NYSE:) declined 1.41% or 2.76 points to end at 192.55 and American Express Company (NYSE:) was down 1.40% or 2.25 points to 158.83.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Catalent Inc (NYSE:) which rose 5.40% to 64.95, First Republic Bank (NYSE:) which was up 4.39% to settle at 14.03 and Signature Bank (OTC:) which gained 4.28% to close at 0.17.

The worst performers were SVB Financial Group (OTC:) which was down 12.09% to 0.80 in late trade, The Mosaic Company (NYSE:) which lost 5.66% to settle at 43.67 and FMC Corporation (NYSE:) which was down 4.07% to 116.92 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were GlucoTrack Inc (NASDAQ:) which rose 221.71% to 1.19, Liquid Media Group Ltd (NASDAQ:) which was up 87.42% to settle at 0.26 and Better Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 47.88% to close at 1.22.

The worst performers were Jowell Global Ltd. (NASDAQ:) which was down 28.40% to 0.30 in late trade, Apollomics Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 25.26% to settle at 12.19 and MDJM Ltd (NASDAQ:) which was down 18.78% to 1.47 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1583 to 1353 and 128 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2070 rose and 1559 declined, while 164 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.56% to 18.40 a new 1-month low.

Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.64% or 13.00 to $2,022.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.22% or 0.18 to hit $80.43 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.14% or 0.12 to trade at $84.87 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.17% to 1.09, while USD/JPY rose 0.39% to 131.82.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 101.58.