Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Financials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.26%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.27%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.89%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM), which rose 3.93% or 3.08 points to trade at 81.50 at the close. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) added 3.11% or 3.77 points to end at 125.16 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) was up 2.28% or 2.42 points to 108.35 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which lost 0.28% or 0.12 points to trade at 42.85 in late trade. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 0.21% or 0.40 points to end at 187.50 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) shed 0.07% or 0.01 points to 14.17.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Monster Beverage 1990 Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) which rose 5.42% to 51.96, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which was up 5.37% to settle at 4.510 and Newfield Exploration Company (NYSE:NFX) which gained 5.34% to close at 29.39.
The worst performers were Michael Kors Holdings Limited (NYSE:KORS) which was down 11.45% to 60.41 in late trade, CBOE Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CBOE) which lost 2.91% to settle at 99.02 and Discovery Communications C Inc (NASDAQ:DISCK) which was down 2.30% to 19.94 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Radio One Inc (NASDAQ:UONE) which rose 78.38% to 3.300, Sigma Labs Inc (NASDAQ:SGLB) which was up 48.11% to settle at 1.955 and Sphere 3D Corp (NASDAQ:ANY) which gained 41.47% to close at 0.646.
The worst performers were Daktronics Inc (NASDAQ:DAKT) which was down 18.56% to 8.19 in late trade, Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER) which lost 16.51% to settle at 0.326 and Top Ships Inc (NASDAQ:TOPS) which was down 14.56% to 0.8800 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2437 to 649 and 101 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1685 rose and 848 declined, while 134 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 11.75% to 15.02.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.18% or 2.30 to $1301.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 2.47% or 1.65 to hit $68.38 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 3.13% or 2.36 to trade at $77.85 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 1.12% to 1.1665, while USD/JPY rose 0.12% to 108.90.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.79% at 94.06.