Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Utilities, Telecoms and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.25%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.16%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which rose 2.68% or 1.22 points to trade at 46.71 at the close. DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) added 1.40% or 1.01 points to end at 73.32 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 1.38% or 0.47 points to 34.62 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which lost 1.27% or 2.15 points to trade at 166.89 in late trade. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) declined 0.69% or 0.14 points to end at 20.02 and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) shed 0.39% or 0.18 points to 45.80.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL) which rose 9.22% to 122.12, Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) which was up 5.91% to settle at 39.08 and Verisk Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:VRSK) which gained 5.68% to close at 89.88.
The worst performers were Envision Healthcare Corp (NYSE:EVHC) which was down 34.20% to 28.03 in late trade, CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL) which lost 6.00% to settle at 17.85 and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZBH) which was down 5.37% to 115.09 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Leading Brands Inc (NASDAQ:LBIX) which rose 36.24% to 2.030, Xunlei Ltd Adr (NASDAQ:XNET) which was up 29.56% to settle at 12.01 and Vermillion Inc (NASDAQ:VRML) which gained 24.83% to close at 1.810.
The worst performers were China Internet Nationwide Financial Services Inc (NASDAQ:CIFS) which was down 27.05% to 30.20 in late trade, Frontier Communications Corp (NASDAQ:FTR) which lost 26.84% to settle at 8.86 and Eleven Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:EBIO) which was down 21.28% to 0.7400 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1620 to 1461 and 136 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1643 fell and 878 advanced, while 131 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.20% to 10.16.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.50% or 6.32 to $1276.82 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.20% or 0.11 to hit $54.27 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.75% or 0.46 to trade at $60.48 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.23% to 1.1619, while USD/JPY rose 0.42% to 114.13.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.25% at 94.69.