Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Oil & Gas and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.27%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.29%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.30%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), which rose 0.93% or 1.23 points to trade at 134.04 at the close. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) added 0.78% or 0.37 points to end at 47.96 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 0.73% or 2.13 points to 293.65 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), which lost 0.47% or 0.56 points to trade at 118.84 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) declined 0.20% or 0.64 points to end at 325.76 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) shed 0.09% or 0.08 points to 90.95.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) which rose 3.92% to 21.59, Mylan NV (NASDAQ:MYL) which was up 3.45% to settle at 20.10 and DuPont Inc (NYSE:DD) which gained 3.07% to close at 64.20.
The worst performers were Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) which was down 1.46% to 343.97 in late trade, L3Harris Technologies Inc (NYSE:LHX) which lost 1.10% to settle at 197.87 and Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) which was down 1.07% to 302.03 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were FuelCell Energy Inc (NASDAQ:FCEL) which rose 49.40% to 2.510, Viveve Medical Inc (NASDAQ:VIVE) which was up 47.13% to settle at 1.2600 and Inpixon (NASDAQ:INPX) which gained 43.61% to close at 0.1090.
The worst performers were Onconova Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ONTX) which was down 20.08% to 0.3830 in late trade, InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NVIV) which lost 19.68% to settle at 0.22 and Equillium Inc (NASDAQ:EQ) which was down 19.33% to 3.38 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 152 to 93 and 3 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 0 fell and 0 advanced on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was unchanged 0.00% to 13.78.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.09% or 1.35 to $1519.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.78% or 0.48 to hit $61.20 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.96% or 0.64 to trade at $66.03 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.04% to 1.1215, while USD/JPY rose 0.02% to 108.72.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 96.150.