Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Technology and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.21%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.51%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which rose 4.60% or 4.08 points to trade at 92.82 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 2.30% or 1.19 points to end at 52.84 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 2.07% or 0.56 points to 27.61 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which lost 2.47% or 1.48 points to trade at 58.33 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 1.11% or 1.69 points to end at 149.91 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) shed 0.64% or 0.38 points to 59.05.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which rose 7.67% to 4.63, Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) which was up 6.85% to settle at 22.93 and Newfield Exploration Company (NYSE:NFX) which gained 5.73% to close at 30.64.
The worst performers were Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) which was down 6.94% to 5.16 in late trade, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) which lost 5.08% to settle at 374.75 and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) which was down 3.35% to 506.63 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Astrotech Corporation (NASDAQ:ASTC) which rose 63.01% to 2.380, GenVec Inc (NASDAQ:GNVC) which was up 55.07% to settle at 0.7600 and Blue Earth Inc (NASDAQ:BBLU) which gained 47.27% to close at 0.1751.
The worst performers were China Sunergy Co Ltd (NASDAQ:CSUN) which was down 31.73% to 0.5598 in late trade, StemCells Inc (NASDAQ:STEM) which lost 30.40% to settle at 0.2610 and FreeSeas Inc (NASDAQ:FREE) which was down 24.79% to 0.0270 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2308 to 1047 and 27 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1543 rose and 1041 declined, while 51 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.77% to 18.34.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.87% or 11.00 to $1251.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 4.93% or 1.80 to hit $38.30 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 3.20% or 1.27 to trade at $40.92 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.04% to 1.1006, while USD/JPY rose 0.69% to 113.40.
The US Dollar Index was unchanged 0.00% at 97.16.