Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Financials and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.49%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.51%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Visa Inc (NYSE:V), which rose 4.07% or 2.66 points to trade at 68.01 at the close. McDonald`s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) added 3.13% or 2.97 points to end at 97.84 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was up 1.50% or 1.16 points to 78.44 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), which lost 1.40% or 2.14 points to trade at 151.19 in late trade. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) declined 1.23% or 1.47 points to end at 117.81 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) shed 0.24% or 0.07 points to 28.62.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were FMC Technologies Inc (NYSE:FTI) which rose 7.50% to 40.56, St Jude Medical Inc (NYSE:STJ) which was up 6.41% to settle at 73.55 and Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) which gained 5.00% to close at 46.18.
The worst performers were Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) which was down 7.41% to 641.23 in late trade, Intuitive Surgical Inc (NASDAQ:ISRG) which lost 5.45% to settle at 516.93 and DR Horton Inc (NYSE:DHI) which was down 5.36% to 27.03 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Great Basin Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:GBSN) which rose 40.68% to 4.98, Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) which was up 38.56% to settle at 2.785 and CalAmp Corp (NASDAQ:CAMP) which gained 25.12% to close at 20.87.
The worst performers were China Cmrcl (NASDAQ:CCCR) which was down 36.24% to 1.90 in late trade, Looksmart Ltd (NASDAQ:LOOK) which lost 22.57% to settle at 1.750 and Venaxis Inc (NASDAQ:APPY) which was down 20.14% to 0.559 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1897 to 1194 and 1 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1498 rose and 1283 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 down 4.15% to 12.70.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.39% or 16.70 to $1186.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.57% or 0.33 to hit $56.28 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.30% or 0.81 to trade at $62.88 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.11% to 1.0725, while USD/JPY rose 0.18% to 119.89.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.04% at 98.24.