Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Services, Technology and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.93%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.82%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.90%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which rose 2.83% or 2.28 points to trade at 82.81 at the close. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) added 2.49% or 8.25 points to end at 340.00 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 1.75% or 0.84 points to 48.77 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), which lost 0.04% or 0.04 points to trade at 112.01 in late trade. 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) added 0.09% or 0.14 points to end at 161.15 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) gained 0.11% or 0.26 points to 240.42.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) which rose 20.64% to 103.18, Lowe’s Companies Inc (NYSE:LOW) which was up 10.36% to settle at 108.01 and Alliance Data Systems Corp (NYSE:ADS) which gained 5.60% to close at 138.07.
The worst performers were Aflac Inc (NYSE:AFL) which was down 5.55% to 48.98 in late trade, Amcor (NYSE:AMCR) which lost 3.31% to settle at 9.64 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) which was down 2.63% to 8.16 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Waitr Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:WTRH) which rose 34.06% to 1.85, SemiLEDS Corporation (NASDAQ:LEDS) which was up 30.41% to settle at 2.8950 and T2 Biosystms Inc (NASDAQ:TTOO) which gained 25.56% to close at 1.13.
The worst performers were American Resources Corp Class A (NASDAQ:AREC) which was down 42.65% to 1.21 in late trade, Artelo Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:ARTL) which lost 31.73% to settle at 1.85 and Adomani Inc (NASDAQ:ADOM) which was down 23.14% to 0.10 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2085 to 925 and 28 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1783 rose and 886 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 9.71% to 15.80.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.20% or 3.05 to $1512.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.48% or 0.27 to hit $55.86 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.03 to trade at $60.42 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.03% to 1.1086, while USD/JPY fell 0.01% to 106.60.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 98.190.