Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.50%, while the S&P 500 index gained 2.30%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 2.95%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 4.95% or 6.17 points to trade at 130.77 at the close. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) added 4.86% or 15.47 points to end at 333.50 and Visa Inc (NYSE:V) was up 4.02% or 5.47 points to 141.38 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which lost 0.97% or 0.59 points to trade at 60.06 in late trade. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) added 0.04% or 0.05 points to end at 122.73 and DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) gained 0.07% or 0.04 points to 57.22.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) which rose 10.27% to 140.64, Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) which was up 7.30% to settle at 249.21 and Align Technology Inc (NASDAQ:ALGN) which gained 6.74% to close at 235.59.
The worst performers were Tiffany & Co (NYSE:TIF) which was down 11.82% to 92.54 in late trade, JM Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) which lost 7.24% to settle at 101.28 and Patterson Companies Inc (NASDAQ:PDCO) which was down 5.73% to 24.66 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Gaming Partners (NASDAQ:GPIC) which rose 70.80% to 13.13, Alliqua BioMedical Inc (NASDAQ:ALQA) which was up 60.24% to settle at 2.660 and Ferroglobe PLC (NASDAQ:GSM) which gained 25.56% to close at 2.26.
The worst performers were Evine Live Inc (NASDAQ:EVLV) which was down 37.02% to 0.661 in late trade, Stein Mart Inc (NASDAQ:SMRT) which lost 27.87% to settle at 1.32 and Arsanis Inc (NASDAQ:ASNS) which was down 25.73% to 3.06 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2480 to 588 and 83 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2068 rose and 585 declined, while 86 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.79% to 18.49.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.64% or 7.80 to $1227.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 2.58% or 1.33 to hit $50.23 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 2.40% or 1.45 to trade at $58.95 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.72% to 1.1369, while USD/JPY fell 0.14% to 113.62.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.56% at 96.738.