Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.22%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.22%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.05%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which rose 1.96% or 1.18 points to trade at 61.26 at the close. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) added 1.48% or 1.21 points to end at 82.79 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) was up 1.13% or 0.58 points to 51.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 5.93% or 2.24 points to trade at 35.51 in late trade. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) declined 1.42% or 1.23 points to end at 85.55 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shed 0.69% or 0.80 points to 114.61.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) which rose 5.94% to 41.92, Transocean Ltd (NYSE:RIG) which was up 5.61% to settle at 10.46 and Michael Kors Holdings Limited (NYSE:KORS) which gained 5.45% to close at 50.11.
The worst performers were Assurant Inc (NYSE:AIZ) which was down 8.35% to 83.68 in late trade, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) which lost 5.93% to settle at 35.51 and Intuitive Surgical Inc (NASDAQ:ISRG) which was down 5.56% to 681.58 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Vanguard Natural Resources LLC (NASDAQ:VNR) which rose 53.70% to 0.810, Cerulean Ph (NASDAQ:CERU) which was up 37.68% to settle at 0.950 and Technical Communications (NASDAQ:TCCO) which gained 21.28% to close at 2.850.
The worst performers were Escalon Medical Corp (NASDAQ:ESMC) which was down 26.21% to 0.4110 in late trade, Sysorex Global (NASDAQ:SYRX) which lost 22.00% to settle at 0.1950 and VASCO Data Security International (NASDAQ:VDSI) which was down 16.33% to 15.01 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2207 to 937 and 95 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1428 rose and 988 declined, while 175 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.82% to 14.39.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.56% or 7.05 to $1269.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 2.25% or 1.13 to hit $51.42 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.68% or 0.87 to trade at $52.55 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.06% to 1.0972, while USD/JPY fell 0.39% to 103.44.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.02% at 97.90.