U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.31%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.31%, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.07%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 2.15%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which rose 3.57% or 8.76 points to trade at 254.18 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) added 3.48% or 0.66 points to end at 19.64 and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) was up 2.77% or 4.97 points to 184.52 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV), which lost 3.16% or 7.55 points to trade at 231.30 in late trade. Procter&Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) declined 2.18% or 3.87 points to end at 173.92 and Unitedhealth Group (NYSE:UNH) shed 1.55% or 9.28 points to 589.75.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) which rose 15.19% to 239.84, Albemarle Corp (NYSE:ALB) which was up 13.58% to settle at 89.30 and The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) which gained 8.64% to close at 17.86.

The worst performers were Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) which was down 5.26% to 328.19 in late trade, Conagra Brands Inc (NYSE:CAG) which lost 4.03% to settle at 31.47 and Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) which was down 3.84% to 49.14 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Allarity Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ALLR) which rose 3,215.79% to 3.78, Utime Ltd (NASDAQ:WTO) which was up 1,870.25% to settle at 0.79 and CN Energy Group Inc (NASDAQ:CNEY) which gained 366.44% to close at 1.39.

The worst performers were Telesis Bio Inc (NASDAQ:TBIO) which was down 55.26% to 1.70 in late trade, Laser Photonics Corp Unit (NASDAQ:LASE) which lost 40.87% to settle at 5.41 and MDJM Ltd (NASDAQ:MDJH) which was down 37.16% to 0.69 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1592 to 1197 and 112 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1735 rose and 1558 declined, while 136 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.29% to 17.69.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.05% or 1.15 to $2,541.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 2.33% or 1.53 to hit $67.28 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 2.07% or 1.43 to trade at $70.62 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.03% to 1.10, while USD/JPY fell 0.02% to 142.40.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 101.70.