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 gained 0.27%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.33%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which rose 3.01% or 6.04 points to trade at 206.98 at the close. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) added 2.02% or 1.76 points to end at 88.82 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 1.70% or 4.06 points to 243.57 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN), which lost 1.00% or 2.40 points to trade at 238.09 in late trade. The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) declined 1.01% or 1.41 points to end at 138.42 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 0.74% or 1.42 points to 191.08.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ:FANG) which rose 9.29% to 63.84, Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) which was up 8.65% to settle at 2094.15 and Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) which gained 8.52% to close at 2082.67.
The worst performers were ABIOMED Inc (NASDAQ:ABMD) which was down 6.50% to 325.23 in late trade, PerkinElmer Inc (NYSE:PKI) which lost 6.25% to settle at 141.68 and Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:EA) which was down 5.85% to 140.25 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Cps Technologies (NASDAQ:CPSH) which rose 139.63% to 16.6300, Tyme Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:TYME) which was up 92.31% to settle at 3.500 and Lizhi Inc (NASDAQ:LIZI) which gained 66.67% to close at 8.60.
The worst performers were Vaxart Inc (NASDAQ:VXRT) which was down 59.19% to 9.5200 in late trade, Moleculin Biotech Inc (NASDAQ:MBRX) which lost 27.31% to settle at 4.6450 and Cellectis SA (NASDAQ:CLLS) which was down 21.15% to 22.78 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1860 to 1232 and 95 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1889 rose and 1193 declined, while 70 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 8.26% to 23.45.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.01% or 0.25 to $1833.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.68% or 0.92 to hit $55.68 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.06% or 0.61 to trade at $58.41 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.14% to 1.2026, while USD/JPY rose 0.07% to 105.05.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 91.157.