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 rose 1.59%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.65%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 2.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corporation (N:CVX), which rose 4.13% or 3.50 points to trade at 88.31 at the close. Boeing Company (N:BA) added 3.32% or 3.74 points to end at 116.34 and Caterpillar Inc (N:CAT) was up 3.14% or 2.05 points to 67.26 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pfizer Inc (N:PFE), which lost 0.60% or 0.18 points to trade at 29.63 in late trade. McDonald`s Corporation (N:MCD) declined 0.45% or 0.54 points to end at 118.64 and Verizon Communications Inc (N:VZ) gained 0.12% or 0.06 points to 50.30.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Garmin Ltd (O:GRMN) which rose 16.55% to 41.06, CONSOL Energy Inc (N:CNX) which was up 12.42% to settle at 8.87 and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (N:FCX) which gained 12.40% to close at 7.16.
The worst performers were Cerner Corporation (O:CERN) which was down 4.81% to 52.79 in late trade, Devon Energy Corporation (N:DVN) which lost 4.37% to settle at 20.33 and FirstEnergy Corporation (N:FE) which was down 3.56% to 32.27 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Linn Energy LLC (O:LINE) which rose 86.05% to 0.68, Linn Co LLC (O:LNCO) which was up 61.42% to settle at 0.2820 and Ultrapetrol Ltd (O:ULTR) which gained 43.14% to close at 0.1002.
The worst performers were IRSA Propiedades Comerciales SA (O:IRCP) which was down 100.00% to 0.000 in late trade, Dynatronics Corporation (O:DYNT) which lost 100.00% to settle at 0.000 and Eltek Ltd (O:ELTK) which was down 100.00% to 0.000 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2744 to 620 and 29 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1895 rose and 786 declined, while 35 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.42% to 22.32.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.15% or 1.80 to $1210.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 5.22% or 1.51 to hit $30.55 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 6.43% or 2.07 to trade at $34.25 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.17% to 1.1124, while USD/JPY fell 0.07% to 114.00.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 96.89.