Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.83%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.82%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.92%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), which rose 3.41% or 3.29 points to trade at 99.82 at the close. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) added 2.51% or 5.45 points to end at 222.60 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) was up 2.40% or 8.76 points to 373.52 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN), which lost 0.81% or 1.99 points to trade at 244.90 in late trade. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 0.53% or 0.77 points to end at 145.38 and Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) shed 0.49% or 0.69 points to 141.18.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) which rose 11.54% to 1756.07, Interpublic Group of Companies Inc (NYSE:IPG) which was up 11.35% to settle at 34.82 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) which gained 10.14% to close at 26.08.
The worst performers were Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG) which was down 7.21% to 40.64 in late trade, Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) which lost 3.35% to settle at 82.63 and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which was down 3.25% to 513.79 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Chembio Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CEMI) which rose 158.98% to 5.335, NeuroMetrix Inc (NASDAQ:NURO) which was up 106.62% to settle at 20.745 and Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR) which gained 37.33% to close at 8.020.
The worst performers were Orbital Energy Group Inc (NASDAQ:OEG) which was down 20.17% to 3.720 in late trade, Staffing 360 Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:STAF) which lost 19.90% to settle at 3.0600 and Neurobo Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:NRBO) which was down 15.37% to 3.360 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2398 to 780 and 110 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2759 rose and 739 declined, while 117 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 9.22% to 17.91.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.42% or 7.55 to $1803.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 4.57% or 3.07 to hit $70.27 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 4.11% or 2.85 to trade at $72.20 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.13% to 1.1794, while USD/JPY rose 0.42% to 110.30.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 92.787.