Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Telecoms and Financials sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Consumer Goods, Basic Materials and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.06%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.02%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.15%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 1.99% or 1.63 points to trade at 83.71 at the close. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) added 0.85% or 0.70 points to end at 83.23 and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) was up 0.78% or 1.25 points to 161.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which lost 1.30% or 0.95 points to trade at 72.05 in late trade. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) declined 0.97% or 1.30 points to end at 132.80 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) shed 0.76% or 0.67 points to 87.97.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) which rose 12.09% to 53.30, Tegna Inc (NYSE:TGNA) which was up 8.89% to settle at 21.8000 and Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) which gained 6.70% to close at 55.13.
The worst performers were Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE:MJN) which was down 5.52% to 79.97 in late trade, Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ:WFM) which lost 5.28% to settle at 29.08 and General Mills Inc (NYSE:GIS) which was down 4.33% to 67.83 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Cogentix Medical Inc (NASDAQ:CGNT) which rose 50.83% to 1.810, Retrophin I (NASDAQ:RTRX) which was up 27.51% to settle at 20.81 and Agios Pharm (NASDAQ:AGIO) which gained 25.88% to close at 46.98.
The worst performers were Great Basin Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:GBSN) which was down 19.95% to 0.1529 in late trade, Shiloh Industries Inc (NASDAQ:SHLO) which lost 19.00% to settle at 7.12 and Lightbridge Corp (NASDAQ:LTBR) which was down 16.48% to 2.1800 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1966 to 1186 and 111 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1502 rose and 1032 declined, while 101 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.92% to 11.91.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.35% or 4.70 to $1349.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 1.45% or 0.65 to hit $45.48 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 1.46% or 0.69 to trade at $47.95 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.15% to 1.1238, while USD/JPY fell 0.24% to 101.77.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.19% at 94.98.