Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Financials sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Technology, Consumer Services and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.59% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index declined 1.39%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 2.76%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Unitedhealth Group (NYSE:UNH), which rose 4.45% or 24.41 points to trade at 573.28 at the close. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) added 3.69% or 5.57 points to end at 156.58 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 2.32% or 1.10 points to 48.52 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), which lost 2.64% or 5.09 points to trade at 187.93 in late trade. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 2.53% or 5.94 points to end at 228.88 and Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) shed 1.88% or 4.81 points to 251.22.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were VF Corporation (NYSE:VFC) which rose 13.54% to 16.15, Progressive Corp (NYSE:PGR) which was up 5.40% to settle at 221.35 and Henry Schein Inc (NASDAQ:HSIC) which gained 5.37% to close at 71.22.
The worst performers were Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT) which was down 10.48% to 220.07 in late trade, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which lost 10.21% to settle at 159.42 and Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX) which was down 10.07% to 967.68 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Stardust Power Inc (NASDAQ:SDST) which rose 144.70% to 24.47, Cetus Capital Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:CETU) which was up 80.18% to settle at 9.91 and Aptevo Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:APVO) which gained 77.50% to close at 0.59.
The worst performers were Aslan Pharmaceuticals Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:ASLN) which was down 36.95% to 0.70 in late trade, 4D Molecular Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FDMT) which lost 31.96% to settle at 18.20 and Cassava Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:SAVA) which was down 29.27% to 9.57 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1643 to 1177 and 92 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2064 fell and 1276 advanced, while 118 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 9.78% to 14.48 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.22% or 5.35 to $2,462.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 2.32% or 1.85 to hit $81.56 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.68% or 1.41 to trade at $85.14 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.39% to 1.09, while USD/JPY fell 1.28% to 156.32.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.50% at 103.44.