Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Technology and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.08% to hit a new 52-week high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.28%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.61%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), which rose 5.33% or 5.56 points to trade at 109.83 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 1.70% or 5.87 points to end at 350.98 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) was up 1.77% or 0.93 points to 53.48 in late trade.
Biggest losers included The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which lost 1.56% or 2.72 points to trade at 172.12 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 1.18% or 4.23 points to end at 354.70 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) shed 1.16% or 1.26 points to 107.53.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Packaging Corp of America (NYSE:PKG) which rose 10.08% to 152.65, MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) which was up 9.27% to settle at 549.34 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) which gained 6.27% to close at 117.16.
The worst performers were Rtx Corp (NYSE:RTX) which was down 10.22% to 87.10 in late trade, Alaska Air Group Inc (NYSE:ALK) which lost 9.66% to settle at 48.18 and Invesco Plc (NYSE:IVZ) which was down 7.46% to 16.62 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Aurora Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:AURC) which rose 223.03% to 33.53, Inpixon (NASDAQ:INPX) which was up 89.49% to settle at 0.29 and Electra Battery Materials Corp (NASDAQ:ELBM) which gained 70.73% to close at 2.10.
The worst performers were Humanigen Inc (NASDAQ:HGEN) which was down 81.12% to 0.04 in late trade, 9 Meters Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:NMTR) which lost 42.97% to settle at 0.07 and ViewRay Inc (NASDAQ:VRAY) which was down 39.90% to 0.03 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1488 to 1447 and 122 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2031 fell and 1497 advanced, while 141 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.36% to 13.86.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.21% or 4.05 to $1,966.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 1.10% or 0.87 to hit $79.61 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.86% or 0.71 to trade at $83.19 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.08% to 1.11, while USD/JPY fell 0.35% to 140.95.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 101.02.