U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.24%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas , Basic Materials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.24%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.07%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.27%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW ), which rose 3.43% or 2.02 points to trade at 60.88 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) added 2.87% or 1.48 points to end at 53.02 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) was up 2.64% or 7.76 points to 301.59 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE: MRK ), which lost 2.08% or 1.77 points to trade at 83.23 in late trade. Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS ) declined 2.03% or 3.63 points to end at 175.46 and Visa Inc Class A (NYSE: V ) shed 1.78% or 3.78 points to 209.11.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY ) which rose 12.30% to 22.55, Apache Corporation (NASDAQ: APA ) which was up 9.36% to settle at 18.22 and Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO ) which gained 7.98% to close at 8.25.

The worst performers were PerkinElmer Inc (NYSE: PKI ) which was down 4.10% to 152.72 in late trade, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY ) which lost 4.07% to settle at 178.38 and Southern Company (NYSE: SO ) which was down 3.61% to 59.00 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were ArcLight Clean Transition Corp (NASDAQ: ACTC ) which rose 94.59% to 23.72, BIOLASE Inc (NASDAQ: BIOL ) which was up 83.55% to settle at 1.0600 and ENGlobal Corporation (NASDAQ: ENG ) which gained 55.76% to close at 6.7600.

The worst performers were Avinger Inc (NASDAQ: AVGR ) which was down 20.69% to 1.150 in late trade, LM Funding America Inc (NASDAQ: LMFA ) which lost 22.04% to settle at 1.9100 and Black Diamond Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: BDTX ) which was down 15.02% to 29.53 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2013 to 1086 and 74 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2047 rose and 1011 declined, while 53 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.82% to 23.40.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.26% or 4.80 to $1855.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.72% or 0.90 to hit $53.15 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.56% or 0.87 to trade at $56.53 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.45% to 1.2204, while USD/JPY fell 0.47% to 103.75.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.46% at 90.028.