Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Financials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.23%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.31%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.43%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), which rose 1.59% or 1.01 points to trade at 64.66 at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) added 1.46% or 2.28 points to end at 158.34 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 1.25% or 1.31 points to 105.79 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), which lost 2.22% or 0.80 points to trade at 35.29 in late trade. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) declined 1.17% or 0.68 points to end at 57.65 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) shed 0.91% or 0.79 points to 85.97.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which rose 7.96% to 5.290, Newfield Exploration Company (NYSE:NFX) which was up 7.49% to settle at 44.66 and American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) which gained 7.31% to close at 58.10.
The worst performers were Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) which was down 10.30% to 55.12 in late trade, Verisk Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:VRSK) which lost 5.12% to settle at 79.43 and Fiserv Inc (NASDAQ:FISV) which was down 4.53% to 104.45 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Magellan Petroleum Corporation (NASDAQ:MPET) which rose 107.90% to 2.5000, China Natural Resources Inc (NASDAQ:CHNR) which was up 52.71% to settle at 2.5400 and Sizmek Inc (NASDAQ:SZMK) which gained 45.11% to close at 3.860.
The worst performers were Stereotaxis Inc (NASDAQ:STXS) which was down 32.85% to 0.9200 in late trade, Cray Inc (NASDAQ:CRAY) which lost 30.27% to settle at 21.81 and The Chefs Warehouse Inc (NASDAQ:CHEF) which was down 29.29% to 11.42 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2174 to 1092 and 23 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1712 rose and 841 declined, while 60 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.34% to 12.79.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.60% or 8.25 to $1364.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 4.05% or 1.60 to hit $41.11 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 3.76% or 1.57 to trade at $43.37 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.68% to 1.1148, while USD/JPY rose 0.35% to 101.23.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.51% at 95.50.