Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.60%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.85%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.85%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which rose 2.26% or 1.15 points to trade at 51.98 at the close. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) added 2.25% or 1.20 points to end at 54.58 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was up 2.17% or 1.28 points to 60.15 in late trade.
Biggest losers included McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which lost 1.73% or 2.10 points to trade at 119.62 in late trade. The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) declined 1.24% or 1.52 points to end at 120.90 and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) shed 0.67% or 0.46 points to 68.66.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) which rose 19.83% to 6.89, CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL) which was up 6.60% to settle at 25.35 and Endo International PLC (NASDAQ:ENDP) which gained 6.07% to close at 17.47.
The worst performers were Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which was down 7.86% to 9.97 in late trade, Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC) which lost 5.12% to settle at 32.60 and Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU) which was down 4.75% to 80.82 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Interpace Diagnostics Group Inc (NASDAQ:IDXG) which rose 70.45% to 7.5000, Apollo Endosurgery Inc (NASDAQ:APEN) which was up 27.78% to settle at 17.2500 and BioScrip Inc (NASDAQ:BIOS) which gained 34.62% to close at 1.400.
The worst performers were Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ:ITEK) which was down 71.31% to 1.75 in late trade, SITO Mobile Ltd (NASDAQ:SITO) which lost 32.25% to settle at 2.500 and Dataram Corp (NASDAQ:DRAM) which was down 20.91% to 1.7400 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2384 to 852 and 29 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1600 rose and 928 declined, while 91 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 8.19% to 12.89.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.69% or 8.00 to $1159.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 2.31% or 1.24 to hit $52.48 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 2.06% or 1.17 to trade at $55.65 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.48% to 1.0405, while USD/JPY rose 0.16% to 117.70.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.86% at 103.25.