Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.87%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.07%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.74%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), which rose 3.57% or 8.23 points to trade at 238.55 at the close. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) added 3.45% or 0.46 points to end at 13.79 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 2.98% or 1.29 points to 44.59 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which lost 1.65% or 4.25 points to trade at 253.63 in late trade. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) declined 0.93% or 1.22 points to end at 130.54 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) shed 0.55% or 0.20 points to 36.33.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which rose 9.19% to 336.06, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) which was up 4.32% to settle at 1503.83 and Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX) which gained 4.31% to close at 212.33.
The worst performers were Comerica Incorporated (NYSE:CMA) which was down 3.51% to 92.74 in late trade, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) which lost 3.14% to settle at 52.38 and Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) which was down 2.82% to 17.95 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Valeritas Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:VLRX) which rose 69.35% to 2.10, vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTVT) which was up 43.25% to settle at 1.19 and Discovery Communications B Inc (NASDAQ:DISCB) which gained 27.54% to close at 44.000.
The worst performers were Netlist Inc (NASDAQ:NLST) which was down 25.86% to 0.180 in late trade, Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:APLS) which lost 16.60% to settle at 25.02 and Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ:OMEX) which was down 15.88% to 9.5900 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2224 to 845 and 116 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1700 rose and 847 declined, while 128 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.73% to 15.28 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.03% or 0.40 to $1350.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.35% or 0.23 to hit $66.45 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.15% or 0.11 to trade at $71.53 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.04% to 1.2375, while USD/JPY fell 0.08% to 107.03.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 89.19.