Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities, Technology and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.30%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.41%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which rose 1.51% or 4.35 points to trade at 293.11 at the close. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) added 1.33% or 1.86 points to end at 141.19 and Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) was up 1.29% or 3.50 points to 275.27 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 3.28% or 1.94 points to trade at 57.16 in late trade. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) declined 1.37% or 0.75 points to end at 53.94 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) shed 1.15% or 0.94 points to 80.66.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Intercontinental Exchange Inc (NYSE:ICE) which rose 3.84% to 122.62, CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX) which was up 3.53% to settle at 32.54 and Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) which gained 3.21% to close at 174.71.
The worst performers were Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:EA) which was down 6.95% to 134.07 in late trade, Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) which lost 5.95% to settle at 16.12 and Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) which was down 5.33% to 80.61 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Voyager Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VYGR) which rose 56.68% to 3.870, Grom Social Enterprises Inc (NASDAQ:GROM) which was up 48.35% to settle at 4.940 and Nextplay Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:NXTP) which gained 28.24% to close at 1.680.
The worst performers were DatChat Inc (NASDAQ:DATS) which was down 17.08% to 7.38 in late trade, ACON S2 Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:STWO) which lost 16.00% to settle at 7.510 and Erasca Inc (NASDAQ:ERAS) which was down 16.04% to 19.10 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1777 to 1398 and 144 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2192 fell and 1365 advanced, while 152 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.41% to 21.00.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.22% or 3.85 to $1764.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 2.34% or 1.85 to hit $77.08 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 2.10% or 1.73 to trade at $80.83 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.32% to 1.1559, while USD/JPY fell 0.04% to 111.41.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.46% at 94.213.