Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.12%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.46%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.05%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which rose 1.62% or 0.51 points to trade at 31.99 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 1.33% or 1.54 points to end at 117.55 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up 1.31% or 0.96 points to 74.01 in late trade.
Biggest losers included The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which lost 0.98% or 1.20 points to trade at 121.81 in late trade. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) declined 0.86% or 1.14 points to end at 131.07 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) shed 0.80% or 0.39 points to 48.12.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) which rose 10.64% to 138.27, Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:GILD) which was up 7.25% to settle at 81.23 and Martin Marietta Materials Inc (NYSE:MLM) which gained 5.41% to close at 213.80.
The worst performers were H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) which was down 8.28% to 26.81 in late trade, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which lost 4.27% to settle at 14.56 and Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which was down 2.48% to 5.30 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were One Horizon Group Inc (NASDAQ:OHGI) which rose 68.49% to 1.2300, Meridian Waste Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:MRDN) which was up 30.91% to settle at 1.44 and LiNiu Technology Group (NASDAQ:LINU) which gained 29.64% to close at 2.165.
The worst performers were Otonomy Inc (NASDAQ:OTIC) which was down 82.81% to 3.58 in late trade, Roka Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ:ROKA) which lost 33.11% to settle at 1.0100 and root9B Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:RTNB) which was down 26.20% to 1.6900 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1884 to 1214 and 138 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1534 rose and 929 declined, while 164 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.27% to 11.20.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.42% or 5.56 to $1313.34 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.99% or 0.46 to hit $45.98 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 1.99% or 1.03 to trade at $50.63 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.73% to 1.1885, while USD/JPY rose 0.58% to 110.34.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.64% at 92.86.