Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Goods and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.52% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.50%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.64%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), which rose 3.71% or 3.26 points to trade at 91.12 at the close. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) added 2.32% or 0.76 points to end at 33.51 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 1.58% or 0.51 points to 32.82 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which lost 0.76% or 0.50 points to trade at 65.16 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) declined 0.39% or 0.19 points to end at 48.08 and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) shed 0.22% or 0.09 points to 40.44.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were FLIR Systems Inc (NASDAQ:FLIR) which rose 8.14% to 36.93, Endo International PLC (NASDAQ:ENDP) which was up 7.91% to settle at 13.65 and Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI) which gained 4.83% to close at 81.60.
The worst performers were American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) which was down 9.03% to 60.85 in late trade, CF Industries Holdings Inc (NYSE:CF) which lost 4.25% to settle at 34.49 and Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) which was down 3.72% to 44.23 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Zosano Pharma Corp (NASDAQ:ZSAN) which rose 41.09% to 2.850, Novan Inc (NASDAQ:NOVN) which was up 34.45% to settle at 6.44 and Atlantic Alliance Partnership Corp (NASDAQ:AAPC) which gained 57.70% to close at 12.49.
The worst performers were Celsion Corp (NASDAQ:CLSN) which was down 33.33% to 0.220 in late trade, COPsync Inc (NASDAQ:COYN) which lost 33.32% to settle at 0.4401 and Sino-Global Shipping America Ltd (NASDAQ:SINO) which was down 24.49% to 3.3300 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1837 to 1387 and 42 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1561 rose and 937 declined, while 126 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 11.17% to 11.94.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.67% or 8.25 to $1233.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.38% or 0.20 to hit $53.00 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.54% or 0.30 to trade at $55.67 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.26% to 1.0604, while USD/JPY fell 0.12% to 114.12.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 101.03.