Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Consumer Services, Basic Materials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Oil & Gas, Consumer Goods and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.16%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.00%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.36%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 1.58% or 1.46 points to trade at 93.83 at the close. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) added 1.33% or 1.79 points to end at 136.10 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was up 1.04% or 0.79 points to 76.65 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which lost 1.93% or 1.18 points to trade at 59.92 in late trade. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) declined 1.28% or 1.11 points to end at 85.93 and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) shed 1.27% or 2.13 points to 165.52.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN) which rose 16.60% to 165.04, Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) which was up 6.40% to settle at 23.61 and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc (NYSE:ZBH) which gained 6.23% to close at 113.67.
The worst performers were Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB) which was down 10.74% to 28.50 in late trade, Endo International PLC (NASDAQ:ENDP) which lost 6.70% to settle at 15.31 and Ventas Inc (NYSE:VTR) which was down 3.61% to 61.16 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Signal Genetics Inc (NASDAQ:SGNL) which rose 264.93% to 17.4800, Biocept Inc (NASDAQ:BIOC) which was up 77.45% to settle at 1.810 and GenVec Inc (NASDAQ:GNVC) which gained 76.86% to close at 8.7900.
The worst performers were Egalet Corportn (NASDAQ:EGLT) which was down 22.20% to 6.52 in late trade, Nanostrg Te (NASDAQ:NSTG) which lost 21.75% to settle at 17.99 and Sino-Global Shipping America Ltd (NASDAQ:SINO) which was down 17.30% to 3.0600 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2023 to 1194 and 35 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1663 rose and 867 declined, while 101 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.87% to 11.46.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.21% or 2.45 to $1187.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 2.21% or 1.15 to hit $50.81 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 2.35% or 1.29 to trade at $53.65 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.14% to 1.0560, while USD/JPY fell 0.24% to 115.72.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 101.98.