Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Technology and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.44%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.54%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.75%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 2.00% or 1.16 points to trade at 59.16 at the close. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) added 1.72% or 2.22 points to end at 131.57 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 1.38% or 0.39 points to 28.72 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD), which lost 1.76% or 1.11 points to trade at 61.85 in late trade. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) declined 0.82% or 0.61 points to end at 74.06 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) shed 0.48% or 0.41 points to 85.03.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX) which rose 5.63% to 50.45, Martin Marietta Materials Inc (NYSE:MLM) which was up 4.38% to settle at 194.92 and Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) which gained 4.34% to close at 104.60.
The worst performers were Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) which was down 5.88% to 36.50 in late trade, Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) which lost 5.04% to settle at 71.16 and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which was down 3.38% to 94.60 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Torchlight Energ (NASDAQ:TRCH) which rose 124.14% to 1.3000, Nortek Inc (NASDAQ:NTK) which was up 38.55% to settle at 86.58 and Forward Industries Inc (NASDAQ:FORD) which gained 38.26% to close at 1.590.
The worst performers were DT Asia Investments Ltd (NASDAQ:CADT) which was down 45.69% to 4.82 in late trade, Globeimmune (NASDAQ:GBIM) which lost 42.81% to settle at 1.030 and Cosi Inc (NASDAQ:COSI) which was down 42.00% to 0.2900 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2071 to 1200 and 33 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1610 rose and 945 declined, while 68 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.95% to 15.12.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.52% or 7.05 to $1365.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.74% or 0.81 to hit $47.41 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.75% or 0.84 to trade at $48.80 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.21% to 1.1099, while USD/JPY fell 0.42% to 101.32.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.12% at 96.15.