U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.87%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Technology , Consumer Services and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.87%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 1.07%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.74%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ), which rose 3.57% or 8.23 points to trade at 238.55 at the close. General Electric Company (NYSE: GE ) added 3.45% or 0.46 points to end at 13.79 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO ) was up 2.98% or 1.29 points to 44.59 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ), which lost 1.65% or 4.25 points to trade at 253.63 in late trade. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) declined 0.93% or 1.22 points to end at 130.54 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE ) shed 0.55% or 0.20 points to 36.33.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX ) which rose 9.19% to 336.06, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN ) which was up 4.32% to settle at 1503.83 and Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ: LRCX ) which gained 4.31% to close at 212.33.

The worst performers were Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA ) which was down 3.51% to 92.74 in late trade, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY ) which lost 3.14% to settle at 52.38 and Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF ) which was down 2.82% to 17.95 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Valeritas Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: VLRX ) which rose 69.35% to 2.10, vTv Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: VTVT ) which was up 43.25% to settle at 1.19 and Discovery Communications B Inc (NASDAQ: DISCB ) which gained 27.54% to close at 44.000.

The worst performers were Netlist Inc (NASDAQ: NLST ) which was down 25.86% to 0.180 in late trade, Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: APLS ) which lost 16.60% to settle at 25.02 and Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc (NASDAQ: OMEX ) which was down 15.88% to 9.5900 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2224 to 845 and 116 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1700 rose and 847 declined, while 128 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.73% to 15.28 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.03% or 0.40 to $1350.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.35% or 0.23 to hit $66.45 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.15% or 0.11 to trade at $71.53 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.04% to 1.2375, while USD/JPY fell 0.08% to 107.03.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 89.19.