Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Industrials and Financials sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Technology, Consumer Services and Telecoms sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.39%, while the S&P 500 index added 1.15%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which rose 24.32% or 31.05 points to trade at 158.73 at the close. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) added 10.87% or 9.43 points to end at 96.19 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) was up 9.24% or 6.68 points to 79.01 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), which lost 8.42% or 3.81 points to trade at 41.44 in late trade. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) declined 4.89% or 5.63 points to end at 109.40 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) shed 2.41% or 0.93 points to 37.67.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Aflac Inc (NYSE:AFL) which rose 26.18% to 36.73, Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) which was up 24.32% to settle at 158.73 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) which gained 23.35% to close at 16.96.
The worst performers were Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) which was down 9.47% to 91.04 in late trade, CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL) which lost 9.05% to settle at 9.05 and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) which was down 8.42% to 41.44 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Astrotech Corp (NASDAQ:ASTC) which rose 261.61% to 4.050, XpresSpa Group Inc (NASDAQ:XSPA) which was up 127.10% to settle at 0.3191 and ClearSign Combustion Corporation (NASDAQ:CLIR) which gained 103.77% to close at 0.810.
The worst performers were Imac Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:IMAC) which was down 54.95% to 2.230 in late trade, Immutep Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:IMMP) which lost 52.03% to settle at 0.887 and Cesca Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:THMO) which was down 46.00% to 2.70 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2307 to 616 and 24 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1714 rose and 992 declined, while 45 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 3.70% to 63.95.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.07% or 17.80 to $1643.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.37% or 0.33 to hit $24.34 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.29% or 0.08 to trade at $27.35 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.01% to 1.0878, while USD/JPY rose 0.09% to 111.28.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 1.26% at 100.963.