Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Utilities and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.27%, while the S&P 500 index added 1.21%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.92%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 3.61% or 2.83 points to trade at 81.28 at the close. Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) added 3.33% or 3.44 points to end at 106.61 and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) was up 2.33% or 1.96 points to 86.04 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which lost 0.16% or 0.13 points to trade at 82.49 in late trade. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) added 0.14% or 0.04 points to end at 28.15 and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) gained 0.17% or 0.07 points to 40.58.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Transocean Ltd (NYSE:RIG) which rose 8.56% to 15.22, Denbury Resources Inc (NYSE:DNR) which was up 7.58% to settle at 7.95 and ENSCO plc (NYSE:ESV) which gained 6.45% to close at 21.70.
The worst performers were The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW) which was down 3.72% to 29.75 in late trade, Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) which lost 3.48% to settle at 76.89 and The NASDAQ OMX Group Inc (NASDAQ:NDAQ) which was down 2.79% to 49.52 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VTSS) which rose 37.28% to 5.340, Retrophin I (NASDAQ:RTRX) which was up 36.65% to settle at 20.17 and Novogen Limited (NASDAQ:NVGN) which gained 25.57% to close at 3.880.
The worst performers were Axion Power International Inc (NASDAQ:AXPW) which was down 36.53% to 0.06 in late trade, Escalera Resources Co (NASDAQ:ESCR) which lost 30.46% to settle at 0.28 and Acorn Energy Inc (NASDAQ:ACFN) which was down 26.86% to 0.37 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2335 to 478; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1667 rose and 1122 declined, while 5 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 10.79% to 13.97.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 2.11% or 24.20 to $1172.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in May rose 4.50% or 2.04 to hit $47.23 a barrel, while the May Brent Oil contract rose 5.82% or 3.12 to trade at $56.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 3.04% to 1.0916, while USD/JPY fell 1.29% to 119.80.
The US Dollar Index was down 2.67% at 97.36.