Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Healthcare, Consumer Services and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.16%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.11%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.14%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which rose 1.35% or 1.42 points to trade at 106.50 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 1.08% or 1.07 points to end at 100.36 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was up 1.03% or 0.65 points to 63.94 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which lost 2.15% or 2.41 points to trade at 109.66 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) declined 1.25% or 2.31 points to end at 183.18 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) shed 0.99% or 0.36 points to 36.01.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which rose 17.83% to 121.29, Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:EA) which was up 12.65% to settle at 108.16 and Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which gained 11.86% to close at 19.95.
The worst performers were Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) which was down 9.79% to 1.29 in late trade, Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:PCLN) which lost 4.54% to settle at 1824.41 and Allergan Plc (NYSE:AGN) which was down 3.69% to 229.72 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were ITUS Corp (NASDAQ:ITUS) which rose 47.83% to 1.700, MannKind Corp (NASDAQ:MNKD) which was up 42.86% to settle at 1.600 and Neuralstem Inc (NASDAQ:CUR) which gained 36.18% to close at 3.9900.
The worst performers were Rocket Fuel Inc (NASDAQ:FUEL) which was down 35.28% to 3.210 in late trade, Concordia International Corp (NASDAQ:CXRX) which lost 30.29% to settle at 1.45 and Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd (NASDAQ:PME) which was down 28.22% to 2.950 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2045 to 1146 and 49 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1336 rose and 1166 declined, while 99 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.71% to 10.13.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.32% or 3.85 to $1219.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 3.16% or 1.45 to hit $47.33 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 3.00% or 1.46 to trade at $50.19 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.07% to 1.0866, while USD/JPY rose 0.22% to 114.25.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 99.51.