U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.06%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.06% to hit a new 3-month high, while the S&P 500 index added 1.00%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 1.55%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM ), which rose 4.23% or 2.51 points to trade at 61.79 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) added 3.98% or 3.03 points to end at 79.13 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) was up 3.59% or 5.54 points to 159.85 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO ), which lost 1.31% or 0.61 points to trade at 46.04 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ) declined 1.27% or 0.66 points to end at 51.29 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD ) shed 0.55% or 0.70 points to 126.89.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC ) which rose 9.26% to 31.73, Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MU ) which was up 6.98% to settle at 10.88 and Legg Mason Inc (NYSE: LM ) which gained 5.78% to close at 34.05.

The worst performers were Reynolds American Inc (NYSE: RAI ) which was down 4.12% to 49.15 in late trade, Tyson Foods Inc (NYSE: TSN ) which lost 4.01% to settle at 65.63 and Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM ) which was down 3.75% to 29.48 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Repros Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: RPRX ) which rose 175.40% to 2.25, Trio Merger Corp (NASDAQ: SAEX ) which was up 28.70% to settle at 0.628 and Donegal Group B Inc (NASDAQ: DGICB ) which gained 27.63% to close at 16.400.

The worst performers were MOL Global Inc (NASDAQ: MOLG ) which was down 55.22% to 0.3000 in late trade, Pacific Sunwear of California Inc (NASDAQ: PSUN ) which lost 17.20% to settle at 0.0414 and Linn Co LLC (NASDAQ: LNCO ) which was down 12.49% to 0.4402 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2516 to 836 and 28 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2008 rose and 608 declined, while 40 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.60% to 13.87.

In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.31% or 16.50 to $1244.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.45% or 0.61 to hit $41.56 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 1.72% or 0.77 to trade at $43.92 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.91% to 1.1279, while USD/JPY rose 0.62% to 109.31.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.82% at 94.79.