U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.93%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Services , Technology and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.93%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.82%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.90%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE ), which rose 2.83% or 2.28 points to trade at 82.81 at the close. Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) added 2.49% or 8.25 points to end at 340.00 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO ) was up 1.75% or 0.84 points to 48.77 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ), which lost 0.04% or 0.04 points to trade at 112.01 in late trade. 3M Company (NYSE: MMM ) added 0.09% or 0.14 points to end at 161.15 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) gained 0.11% or 0.26 points to 240.42.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT ) which rose 20.64% to 103.18, Lowe’s Companies Inc (NYSE: LOW ) which was up 10.36% to settle at 108.01 and Alliance Data Systems Corp (NYSE: ADS ) which gained 5.60% to close at 138.07.

The worst performers were Aflac Inc (NYSE: AFL ) which was down 5.55% to 48.98 in late trade, Amcor (NYSE: AMCR ) which lost 3.31% to settle at 9.64 and General Electric Company (NYSE: GE ) which was down 2.63% to 8.16 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Waitr Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: WTRH ) which rose 34.06% to 1.85, SemiLEDS Corporation (NASDAQ: LEDS ) which was up 30.41% to settle at 2.8950 and T2 Biosystms Inc (NASDAQ: TTOO ) which gained 25.56% to close at 1.13.

The worst performers were American Resources Corp Class A (NASDAQ: AREC ) which was down 42.65% to 1.21 in late trade, Artelo Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: ARTL ) which lost 31.73% to settle at 1.85 and Adomani Inc (NASDAQ: ADOM ) which was down 23.14% to 0.10 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2085 to 925 and 28 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1783 rose and 886 declined, while 83 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 9.71% to 15.80.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.20% or 3.05 to $1512.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.48% or 0.27 to hit $55.86 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.03 to trade at $60.42 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.03% to 1.1086, while USD/JPY fell 0.01% to 106.60.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 98.190.