Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Consumer Services and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.91% to hit a new 1-month high, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.74%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.88%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which rose 3.93% or 9.84 points to trade at 259.98 at the close. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) added 3.18% or 5.07 points to end at 164.61 and Honeywell International Inc (NYSE:HON) was up 2.79% or 4.66 points to 171.55 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), which added 0.18% or 0.26 points to trade at 140.89 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) added 0.25% or 0.15 points to end at 59.61 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) gained 0.51% or 0.41 points to 80.04.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which rose 9.54% to 3.33, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which was up 7.97% to settle at 125.33 and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which gained 7.38% to close at 16.88.
The worst performers were Cboe Global Markets Inc (NYSE:CBOE) which was down 2.25% to 84.89 in late trade, NiSource Inc (NYSE:NI) which lost 1.61% to settle at 22.05 and Kimco Realty Corporation (NYSE:KIM) which was down 1.59% to 11.76 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Rave Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:RAVE) which rose 127.63% to 1.170, CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV) which was up 92.62% to settle at 5.74 and American Resources Corp Class A (NASDAQ:AREC) which gained 59.51% to close at 2.6000.
The worst performers were Electro-Sensors Inc (NASDAQ:ELSE) which was down 39.06% to 5.18 in late trade, Asia Pacific Wire & Cable Corp Ltd (NASDAQ:APWC) which lost 31.94% to settle at 1.790 and Diginex Ltd (NASDAQ:EQOS) which was down 23.14% to 5.38 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2282 to 799 and 93 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2270 rose and 642 declined, while 61 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.82% to 28.06.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.96% or 18.25 to $1890.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.57% or 0.64 to hit $40.03 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $42.16 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.04% to 1.1764, while USD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 105.96.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 93.670.