Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Telecoms and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.24% to hit a new 3-month high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.18%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 3.32% or 4.51 points to trade at 140.31 at the close. DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) added 3.02% or 1.65 points to end at 56.24 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was up 1.27% or 5.29 points to 421.55 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), which lost 3.53% or 2.63 points to trade at 71.80 in late trade. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) declined 2.27% or 2.32 points to end at 99.88 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) shed 0.94% or 0.40 points to 42.20.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ:GRMN) which rose 17.04% to 83.06, Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) which was up 6.92% to settle at 30.27 and Host Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:HST) which gained 6.26% to close at 19.68.
The worst performers were CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) which was down 8.10% to 64.22 in late trade, Concho Resources Inc (NYSE:CXO) which lost 7.07% to settle at 112.45 and Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) which was down 5.65% to 54.41 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Kandi Technologies Group Inc (NASDAQ:KNDI) which rose 34.34% to 7.980, ARCA Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:ABIO) which was up 31.27% to settle at 0.508 and Ideanomics Inc (NASDAQ:IDEX) which gained 30.19% to close at 2.070.
The worst performers were Aceto Corporation (NASDAQ:ACET) which was down 65.72% to 0.35 in late trade, Ovid Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:OVID) which lost 28.02% to settle at 1.85 and PHI Inc (NASDAQ:PHIIK) which was down 21.91% to 2.21 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1777 to 1233 and 107 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1396 rose and 1260 declined, while 76 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.97% to 14.02 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.26% or 3.55 to $1341.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.42% or 0.80 to hit $57.25 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.06% or 0.04 to trade at $67.16 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.09% to 1.1345, while USD/JPY fell 0.00% to 110.84.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 96.395.