Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.75%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.97%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.00%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP), which rose 2.80% or 1.80 points to trade at 66.03 at the close. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) added 2.45% or 0.35 points to end at 14.62 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) was up 2.36% or 1.84 points to 79.93 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), which lost 3.13% or 2.68 points to trade at 83.06 in late trade. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) declined 1.79% or 1.82 points to end at 99.97 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) shed 1.36% or 0.64 points to 46.38.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) which rose 22.80% to 47.62, Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:EA) which was up 5.75% to settle at 131.01 and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which gained 5.37% to close at 82.40.
The worst performers were Monster Beverage 1990 Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) which was down 7.48% to 49.11 in late trade, Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which lost 5.60% to settle at 15.01 and American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) which was down 3.49% to 41.50 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were One Horizon Group Inc (NASDAQ:OHGI) which rose 44.36% to 0.8800, The9 Limited (NASDAQ:NCTY) which was up 41.69% to settle at 1.560 and Real Goods Solar Inc (NASDAQ:RGSE) which gained 33.67% to close at 1.3100.
The worst performers were Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:HMNY) which was down 45.85% to 0.785 in late trade, Lipocine In (NASDAQ:LPCN) which lost 35.96% to settle at 1.14 and Cutera Inc (NASDAQ:CUTR) which was down 30.13% to 39.02 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1898 to 1169 and 128 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1562 rose and 997 declined, while 117 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 8.84% to 13.41 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.07% or 0.90 to $1312.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 3.13% or 2.16 to hit $71.22 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 3.21% or 2.40 to trade at $77.25 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.13% to 1.1850, while USD/JPY rose 0.54% to 109.71.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 92.95.