Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Goods and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.05% to hit a new 3-month high, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.40%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 2.13%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which rose 3.32% or 14.54 points to trade at 452.04 at the close. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 2.86% or 5.81 points to end at 209.19 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was up 2.42% or 6.66 points to 281.58 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which lost 2.60% or 4.69 points to trade at 175.44 in late trade. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) declined 1.53% or 1.58 points to end at 101.68 and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) shed 0.88% or 1.06 points to 118.86.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which rose 7.45% to 82.61, Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) which was up 6.40% to settle at 115.79 and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which gained 5.44% to close at 457.61.
The worst performers were FLIR Systems Inc (NASDAQ:FLIR) which was down 4.67% to 36.55 in late trade, Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which lost 3.98% to settle at 15.19 and American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) which was down 3.25% to 30.94 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Biofrontera AG ADR (NASDAQ:BFRA) which rose 50.10% to 30.50, Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT) which was up 44.14% to settle at 1.6000 and Pennant Group Inc (NASDAQ:PNTG) which gained 40.67% to close at 36.77.
The worst performers were OneSpan Inc (NASDAQ:OSPN) which was down 39.62% to 18.84 in late trade, Stein Mart Inc (NASDAQ:SMRT) which lost 37.90% to settle at 0.1816 and Kingold Jewelry Inc (NASDAQ:KGJI) which was down 31.43% to 0.408 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1879 to 1166 and 78 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1547 rose and 1256 declined, while 71 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.28% to 22.28.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.02% or 19.85 to $1926.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 2.26% or 0.94 to hit $42.55 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $45.31 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.01% to 1.1783, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 106.86.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 93.405.