Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Oil & Gas and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.64%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.57%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), which rose 2.16% or 2.57 points to trade at 121.55 at the close. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) added 1.25% or 0.98 points to end at 79.10 and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) was up 1.24% or 0.49 points to 40.08 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which lost 0.62% or 0.54 points to trade at 86.59 in late trade. Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) added 0.04% or 0.05 points to end at 142.34 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) gained 0.04% or 0.01 points to 27.22.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Perrigo Co (NYSE:PRGO) which rose 4.34% to 191.25, Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) which was up 4.15% to settle at 132.18 and Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) which gained 3.27% to close at 124.97.
The worst performers were Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) which was down 3.38% to 199.60 in late trade, United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which lost 2.61% to settle at 88.76 and First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) which was down 2.48% to 52.15 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Aerie Pharmace (NASDAQ:AERI) which rose 50.04% to 19.91, Escalera Resources Co (NASDAQ:ESCR) which was up 44.00% to settle at 0.360 and Liquid Hlgs (NASDAQ:LIQD) which gained 38.12% to close at 0.279.
The worst performers were Avalanche Biotec (NASDAQ:AAVL) which was down 56.15% to 17.05 in late trade, Steadymed Ltd (NASDAQ:STDY) which lost 17.51% to settle at 5.16 and SGOCO Group Ltd (NASDAQ:SGOC) which was down 17.35% to 0.743 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2043 to 1098 and 4 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1681 rose and 1147 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 3.64% to 14.83.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.33% or 3.90 to $1181.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.85% or 0.51 to hit $60.51 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.20 to trade at $63.76 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.31% to 1.1250, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 123.36.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.16% at 95.22.