Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Services and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Utilities, Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.03%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.13%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (N:HD), which rose 4.42% or 5.34 points to trade at 126.18 at the close. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (N:WMT) added 3.54% or 2.05 points to end at 59.92 and Intel Corporation (O:INTC) was up 1.68% or 0.54 points to 32.64 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (N:CAT), which lost 1.42% or 1.00 points to trade at 69.39 in late trade. Exxon Mobil Corporation (N:XOM) declined 1.16% or 0.94 points to end at 79.96 and Pfizer Inc (N:PFE) shed 0.87% or 0.29 points to 32.87.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Airgas Inc (N:ARG) which rose 29.36% to 137.35, Fossil Group Inc (O:FOSL) which was up 8.54% to settle at 34.57 and Qorvo Inc (O:QRVO) which gained 5.59% to close at 54.74.
The worst performers were Keurig Green Mountain Inc (O:GMCR) which was down 9.80% to 40.13 in late trade, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (N:CHK) which lost 7.41% to settle at 5.87 and Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (N:COG) which was down 6.91% to 21.00 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Axion Power International Inc (O:AXPW) which rose 33.72% to 1.070, Wave Systems Corp (O:WAVX) which was up 23.15% to settle at 0.150 and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc (O:KBIO) which gained 26.16% to close at 2.170.
The worst performers were Cesca Therapeutics Inc (O:KOOL) which was down 48.97% to 0.300 in late trade, Speed Commerce Inc (O:SPDC) which lost 32.96% to settle at 0.142 and AgroFresh Solutions Inc (O:AGFS) which was down 28.07% to 5.15 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2171 to 1271 and 5 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1418 fell and 1197 advanced, while 71 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 3.74% to 18.84.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 1.38% or 14.90 to $1068.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 2.00% or 0.83 to hit $40.91 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 1.68% or 0.75 to trade at $43.81 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.38% to 1.0647, while USD/JPY rose 0.18% to 123.41.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.24% at 99.71.