U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.27%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, 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 0.27% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.12%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.13%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS ), which rose 2.52% or 4.46 points to trade at 181.76 at the close. Visa Inc Class A (NYSE: V ) added 2.14% or 4.59 points to end at 218.96 and Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW ) was up 2.15% or 1.17 points to 55.50 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ), which lost 1.46% or 0.72 points to trade at 48.67 in late trade. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) declined 1.06% or 2.38 points to end at 221.77 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ) shed 1.03% or 0.60 points to 58.20.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE: FCX ) which rose 7.15% to 26.51, Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN ) which was up 5.36% to settle at 16.13 and Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FANG ) which gained 4.91% to close at 49.31.

The worst performers were The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES ) which was down 2.27% to 22.78 in late trade, H&R Block Inc (NYSE: HRB ) which lost 1.92% to settle at 15.36 and Akamai Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: AKAM ) which was down 1.92% to 104.66 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Professional Diversity Network Inc (NASDAQ: IPDN ) which rose 110.22% to 2.8800, Bionano Genomics Inc (NASDAQ: BNGO ) which was up 62.78% to settle at 2.165 and SGOCO Group Ltd (NASDAQ: SGOC ) which gained 76.86% to close at 1.8300.

The worst performers were China Finance Online Co Limited (NASDAQ: JRJC ) which was down 23.01% to 8.46 in late trade, BOS Better Online Solutions (NASDAQ: BOSC ) which lost 20.91% to settle at 2.270 and Osmotica Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: OSMT ) which was down 20.60% to 4.20 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2090 to 985 and 93 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2060 rose and 950 declined, while 55 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.13% to 23.05.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.67% or 12.60 to $1895.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.62% or 0.30 to hit $48.30 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.57% or 0.29 to trade at $51.52 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.38% to 1.2293, while USD/JPY fell 0.31% to 103.23.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.34% at 89.612.