Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Industrials, Basic Materials and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.30%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.34%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which rose 1.82% or 2.59 points to trade at 144.61 at the close. 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) added 1.52% or 2.99 points to end at 199.88 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was up 1.28% or 4.08 points to 323.34 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which lost 1.86% or 4.39 points to trade at 231.75 in late trade. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) declined 1.01% or 1.05 points to end at 102.94 and Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) shed 0.75% or 1.88 points to 248.37.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Affiliated Managers Group Inc (NYSE:AMG) which rose 5.26% to 175.58, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) which was up 3.61% to settle at 86.08 and Nucor Corp (NYSE:NUE) which gained 3.38% to close at 95.68.
The worst performers were Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) which was down 5.97% to 17.17 in late trade, Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) which lost 4.67% to settle at 137.43 and MarketAxess Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MKTX) which was down 4.58% to 450.20 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Newegg Commerce Inc (NASDAQ:NEGG) which rose 149.12% to 67.76, Mannatech Incorporated (NASDAQ:MTEX) which was up 49.08% to settle at 43.53 and Data Storage Corp (NASDAQ:DTST) which gained 31.82% to close at 9.610.
The worst performers were Bridgeline Digital Inc (NASDAQ:BLIN) which was down 30.91% to 8.450 in late trade, BSQUARE Corporation (NASDAQ:BSQR) which lost 28.87% to settle at 5.015 and Professional Diversity Network Inc (NASDAQ:IPDN) which was down 21.46% to 1.6650 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1702 to 1461 and 129 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2444 fell and 1032 advanced, while 146 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.46% to 16.20.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.54% or 9.65 to $1803.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.91% or 1.40 to hit $71.97 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.73% or 1.29 to trade at $73.24 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.25% to 1.1792, while USD/JPY rose 0.03% to 110.64.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.18% at 92.707.
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