U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.46%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.46% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.36%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.49%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE ), which rose 1.85% or 0.94 points to trade at 51.79 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) added 1.76% or 1.63 points to end at 94.34 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) was up 1.68% or 4.02 points to 243.09 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE: MRK ), which lost 1.05% or 0.64 points to trade at 60.50 in late trade. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO ) declined 0.62% or 0.19 points to end at 30.56 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) shed 0.31% or 0.36 points to 115.66.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were CarMax Inc (NYSE: KMX ) which rose 6.09% to 66.16, TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ: TRIP ) which was up 5.05% to settle at 48.80 and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE: FCX ) which gained 4.50% to close at 14.16.

The worst performers were Acuity Brands Inc (NYSE: AYI ) which was down 5.64% to 231.72 in late trade, Constellation Brands Inc (NYSE: STZ ) which lost 4.03% to settle at 150.45 and Praxair Inc (NYSE: PX ) which was down 3.75% to 118.39 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: CNAT ) which rose 141.33% to 4.730, Freds Inc (NASDAQ: FRED ) which was up 81.08% to settle at 20.19 and Terravia Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: TVIA ) which gained 23.81% to close at 1.300.

The worst performers were NeuroMetrix Inc (NASDAQ: NURO ) which was down 27.78% to 0.662 in late trade, Celsion Corp (NASDAQ: CLSN ) which lost 25.15% to settle at 0.344 and Sphere 3D Corp (NASDAQ: ANY ) which was down 23.08% to 0.200 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2038 to 1189 and 42 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1622 rose and 902 declined, while 100 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.48% to 11.42 a new 3-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.78% or 8.90 to $1133.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.58% or 0.31 to hit $53.37 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.89% or 0.49 to trade at $55.41 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.12% to 1.0389, while USD/JPY rose 0.61% to 117.83.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.20% at 103.28.