Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Goods and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.45%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.58%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 1.13%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Visa Inc Class A (NYSE:V), which rose 1.61% or 2.58 points to trade at 162.79 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 1.41% or 1.75 points to end at 126.02 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) was up 1.21% or 0.49 points to 41.15 in late trade.
Biggest losers included 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), which lost 0.62% or 1.09 points to trade at 174.12 in late trade. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) declined 0.41% or 0.41 points to end at 99.88 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) shed 0.38% or 0.42 points to 109.90.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which rose 9.65% to 13.29, Progressive Corp (NYSE:PGR) which was up 5.24% to settle at 77.50 and Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) which gained 4.08% to close at 1170.80.
The worst performers were Agilent Technologies Inc (NYSE:A) which was down 11.01% to 67.64 in late trade, The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW) which lost 3.61% to settle at 42.74 and Transdigm Group Incorporated (NYSE:TDG) which was down 3.17% to 452.63 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Global Eagle Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:ENT) which rose 60.84% to 1.270, PDS Biotechnology Corp (NASDAQ:PDSB) which was up 41.37% to settle at 8.6800 and Eltek Ltd (NASDAQ:ELTK) which gained 26.21% to close at 1.666.
The worst performers were ImmunoGen Inc (NASDAQ:IMGN) which was down 32.06% to 2.14 in late trade, Sunworks Inc (NASDAQ:SUNW) which lost 31.51% to settle at 0.8630 and Electrocore LLC (NASDAQ:ECOR) which was down 29.64% to 3.75 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1919 to 1050 and 124 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1502 rose and 1164 declined, while 83 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 8.97% to 16.44.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.07% or 0.90 to $1297.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.55% or 0.34 to hit $62.12 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $71.94 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.06% to 1.1206, while USD/JPY fell 0.01% to 109.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 97.385.