Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities, Basic Materials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Oil & Gas, Healthcare and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.16% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.11%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD), which rose 3.39% or 2.62 points to trade at 79.80 at the close. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) added 1.53% or 0.88 points to end at 58.24 and 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) was up 1.46% or 2.67 points to 186.04 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 1.23% or 0.45 points to trade at 36.07 in late trade. Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) declined 1.20% or 1.34 points to end at 110.38 and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) shed 1.17% or 0.96 points to 80.93.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ:GRMN) which rose 7.33% to 54.15, Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) which was up 4.00% to settle at 63.67 and E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD) which gained 3.39% to close at 79.80.
The worst performers were First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) which was down 8.36% to 33.56 in late trade, Newfield Exploration Company (NYSE:NFX) which lost 8.05% to settle at 39.07 and Concho Resources Inc (NYSE:CXO) which was down 6.83% to 131.70 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Microbot Medical Inc (NASDAQ:MBOT) which rose 46.20% to 7.5000, Bioanalytical Systems Inc (NASDAQ:BASI) which was up 31.68% to settle at 1.330 and Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) which gained 29.95% to close at 12.150.
The worst performers were Argos Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ARGS) which was down 66.48% to 1.48 in late trade, Cemtrex Inc (NASDAQ:CETX) which lost 33.59% to settle at 3.4000 and EyeGate Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:EYEG) which was down 31.62% to 2.530 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1815 to 1402 and 51 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1522 fell and 981 advanced, while 130 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.21% to 11.71.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.01% or 0.15 to $1239.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.38% or 0.75 to hit $53.58 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 1.43% or 0.81 to trade at $55.85 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.28% to 1.0566, while USD/JPY fell 0.47% to 113.14.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 101.22.