U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.17%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.17%, while the S&P 500 index added 2.15%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 2.89%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ), which rose 4.73% or 12.32 points to trade at 272.57 at the close. Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE ) added 3.32% or 2.49 points to end at 77.48 and Visa Inc (NYSE: V ) was up 3.29% or 4.51 points to 141.74 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ), which added 0.19% or 0.10 points to trade at 53.70 in late trade. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD ) added 0.24% or 0.40 points to end at 164.07 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM ) gained 0.47% or 0.38 points to 81.20.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE ) which rose 9.52% to 260.67, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ: AMD ) which was up 7.31% to settle at 28.180 and Omnicom Group Inc (NYSE: OMC ) which gained 6.99% to close at 74.36.

The worst performers were WW Grainger Inc (NYSE: GWW ) which was down 11.95% to 280.01 in late trade, BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK ) which lost 4.44% to settle at 408.00 and AutoZone Inc (NYSE: AZO ) which was down 1.71% to 773.51 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Blink Charging Co (NASDAQ: BLNK ) which rose 62.56% to 3.5600, Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD ) which was up 29.03% to settle at 0.40 and Trevena Inc (NASDAQ: TRVN ) which gained 26.18% to close at 1.07.

The worst performers were Hudson Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: HDSN ) which was down 31.55% to 0.842 in late trade, Flex Pharma Inc (NASDAQ: FLKS ) which lost 27.37% to settle at 0.69 and Liquid Media Group Ltd (NASDAQ: YVR ) which was down 24.47% to 3.210 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2621 to 475 and 72 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2105 rose and 539 declined, while 69 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 17.28% to 17.62.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.25% or 3.10 to $1227.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.11% or 0.08 to hit $71.86 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.69% or 0.56 to trade at $81.34 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.04% to 1.1575, while USD/JPY rose 0.47% to 112.31.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 94.79.