Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Telecommunications and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Utilities, Technology and Basic Materials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.08% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.08%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which rose 3.87% or 3.68 points to trade at 98.66 at the close. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) added 2.05% or 0.52 points to end at 25.91 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was up 1.62% or 1.31 points to 82.17 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 1.35% or 0.47 points to trade at 33.95 in late trade. International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) declined 1.23% or 2.02 points to end at 162.81 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) shed 1.20% or 1.38 points to 114.05.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Newfield Exploration Company (NYSE:NFX) which rose 13.67% to 36.00, First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) which was up 7.02% to settle at 58.54 and Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) which gained 5.32% to close at 29.91.
The worst performers were Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) which was down 9.92% to 34.67 in late trade, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which lost 9.56% to settle at 17.98 and Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) which was down 6.26% to 18.56 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were CollabRx Inc (NASDAQ:CLRX) which rose 87.39% to 2.230, Benefitfocu (NASDAQ:BNFT) which was up 47.24% to settle at 33.82 and Oneida Financial Corp (NASDAQ:ONFC) which gained 48.89% to close at 19.49.
The worst performers were Corporte Re (NASDAQ:CRRS) which was down 24.18% to 0.18 in late trade, Daegis Inc (NASDAQ:DAEG) which lost 28.89% to settle at 0.640 and Ivanhoe Energy Inc (NASDAQ:IVAN) which was down 22.77% to 0.258 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1452 to 1372; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1497 rose and 1276 declined, while 3 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.10% to 13.84.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.59% or 7.10 to $1204.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 3.62% or 1.78 to hit $51.06 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 5.57% or 3.27 to trade at $61.93 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.19% to 1.1362, while USD/JPY fell 0.09% to 118.84.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.30% at 94.24.