Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Telecoms and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Utilities, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.01%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.12%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which rose 6.58% or 6.36 points to trade at 103.03 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 1.63% or 1.35 points to end at 84.10 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) was up 0.93% or 0.51 points to 55.32 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), which lost 3.30% or 1.48 points to trade at 43.40 in late trade. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) declined 1.83% or 2.23 points to end at 119.48 and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) shed 1.04% or 1.22 points to 116.43.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ:GRMN) which rose 11.64% to 51.79, State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) which was up 9.31% to settle at 63.75 and Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN) which gained 8.09% to close at 162.25.
The worst performers were Akamai Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AKAM) which was down 13.05% to 50.51 in late trade, Robert Half International Inc (NYSE:RHI) which lost 11.05% to settle at 36.86 and Total System Services Inc (NYSE:TSS) which was down 9.04% to 51.33 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Sequenom Inc (NASDAQ:SQNM) which rose 176.24% to 2.350, Epirus Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:EPRS) which was up 103.86% to settle at 0.190 and Medigus Ltd (NASDAQ:MDGS) which gained 58.96% to close at 2.130.
The worst performers were Anavex Life Sciences Corp (NASDAQ:AVXL) which was down 40.46% to 4.459 in late trade, SkyPeople Fruit Juice Inc (NASDAQ:SPU) which lost 28.82% to settle at 9.2600 and Transgenomi (NASDAQ:TBIO) which was down 23.91% to 0.3500 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1731 to 1536 and 39 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1461 rose and 1122 declined, while 80 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.30% to 12.88.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 1.55% or 20.65 to $1348.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 2.42% or 1.04 to hit $41.88 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 3.05% or 1.38 to trade at $43.85 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.67% to 1.1059, while USD/JPY rose 0.50% to 105.16.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.43% at 96.75.