Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities, Healthcare and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Technology sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.22%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.10%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which rose 1.80% or 2.77 points to trade at 156.76 at the close. The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) added 1.48% or 1.86 points to end at 127.96 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) was up 1.03% or 2.31 points to 226.51 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which lost 1.42% or 1.53 points to trade at 106.60 in late trade. E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD) declined 1.26% or 1.06 points to end at 82.82 and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) shed 1.07% or 0.89 points to 82.07.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which rose 9.26% to 118.00, H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) which was up 7.93% to settle at 29.13 and Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) which gained 2.25% to close at 22.76.
The worst performers were United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which was down 6.13% to 104.81 in late trade, Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which lost 5.44% to settle at 6.08 and Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) which was down 5.40% to 24.89 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Aethlon Medical Inc (NASDAQ:AEMD) which rose 49.07% to 2.400, Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:EKSO) which was up 41.41% to settle at 1.81 and LiNiu Technology Group (NASDAQ:LINU) which gained 37.66% to close at 0.530.
The worst performers were TSR Inc (NASDAQ:TSRI) which was down 21.84% to 6.370 in late trade, Hong Kong Highpower Technology (NASDAQ:HPJ) which lost 19.35% to settle at 3.750 and Spi Energy Co Ltd (NASDAQ:SPI) which was down 19.09% to 0.89 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1751 to 1491 and 28 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1489 fell and 1017 advanced, while 119 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.63% to 10.59.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.50% or 6.33 to $1262.27 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 3.72% or 1.73 to hit $44.73 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 3.49% or 1.70 to trade at $47.02 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.07% to 1.1218, while USD/JPY fell 0.41% to 109.61.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 96.89.