Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities, Consumer Goods and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.36%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.25%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.40%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 1.91% or 4.19 points to trade at 223.83 at the close. Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) added 1.44% or 0.64 points to end at 45.03 and E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD) was up 1.34% or 1.04 points to 78.38 in late trade.
Biggest losers included General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which lost 1.59% or 0.45 points to trade at 27.83 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) declined 0.97% or 0.44 points to end at 45.04 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) shed 0.85% or 0.27 points to 31.49.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU) which rose 6.72% to 137.83, First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) which was up 6.66% to settle at 38.90 and NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) which gained 5.54% to close at 16.76.
The worst performers were Tiffany & Co (NYSE:TIF) which was down 8.71% to 85.03 in late trade, Signet Jewelers Ltd (NYSE:SIG) which lost 6.59% to settle at 54.53 and Advance Auto Parts Inc (NYSE:AAP) which was down 5.43% to 133.02 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Globus Maritime Ltd (NASDAQ:GLBS) which rose 82.38% to 1.6600, Spi Energy Co Ltd (NASDAQ:SPI) which was up 30.57% to settle at 0.46 and Fenix Parts Inc (NASDAQ:FENX) which gained 31.46% to close at 1.150.
The worst performers were Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:HMNY) which was down 23.36% to 2.920 in late trade, Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:EKSO) which lost 20.59% to settle at 1.08 and Aeglea Bio Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:AGLE) which was down 14.72% to 4.75 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1800 to 1404 and 52 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1230 fell and 1219 advanced, while 154 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.44% to 10.03.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.18% or 2.27 to $1257.77 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.31% or 0.16 to hit $51.31 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.35% or 0.19 to trade at $53.96 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.30% to 1.1217, while USD/JPY fell 0.20% to 111.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.31% at 96.98.