Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Oil & Gas and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.69%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.69%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), which rose 2.59% or 6.37 points to trade at 252.25 at the close. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) added 1.58% or 1.97 points to end at 126.64 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was up 1.55% or 1.71 points to 112.14 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which lost 0.82% or 1.50 points to trade at 181.14 in late trade. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) declined 0.56% or 0.64 points to end at 114.09 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) gained 0.13% or 0.23 points to 182.06.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which rose 4.86% to 3.020, DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) which was up 4.42% to settle at 53.60 and Range Resources Corp (NYSE:RRC) which gained 4.04% to close at 10.81.
The worst performers were Discovery Inc Class A (NASDAQ:DISCA) which was down 5.08% to 26.93 in late trade, Discovery Communications C Inc (NASDAQ:DISCK) which lost 4.86% to settle at 25.62 and Viacom B Inc (NASDAQ:VIAB) which was down 3.36% to 28.45 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Akari Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ:AKTX) which rose 224.16% to 5.900, Presbia PLC (NASDAQ:LENS) which was up 57.69% to settle at 1.230 and Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE) which gained 28.63% to close at 2.920.
The worst performers were Sientra Inc (NASDAQ:SIEN) which was down 28.65% to 8.12 in late trade, VivoPower International PLC (NASDAQ:VVPR) which lost 26.79% to settle at 1.94 and Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ:ICON) which was down 25.29% to 0.28 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2022 to 964 and 114 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1561 rose and 1071 declined, while 80 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.61% to 13.41 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.94% or 12.25 to $1310.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 2.62% or 1.49 to hit $58.36 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.50% or 1.00 to trade at $67.67 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.40% to 1.1332, while USD/JPY fell 0.18% to 111.14.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.47% at 96.440.