U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 2.18% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the gained 2.18% to hit a new 6-months high, while the index added 3.09%, and the index gained 4.41%.

The best performers of the session on the were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:), which rose 6.16% or 14.81 points to trade at 255.14 at the close. Meanwhile, Salesforce Inc (NYSE:) added 5.47% or 8.29 points to end at 159.97 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:) was up 4.86% or 6.86 points to 148.03 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Walmart Inc (NYSE:), which fell 0.36% or 0.55 points to trade at 152.42 at the close. 3M Company (NYSE:) declined 0.13% or 0.16 points to end at 125.97 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:) was up 0.55% or 1.29 points to 236.41.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:) which rose 9.70% to 235.79, Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:) which was up 8.75% to settle at 305.53 and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:) which gained 8.57% to close at 16.79.

The worst performers were NetApp Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 5.82% to 67.61 in late trade, Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:) which lost 4.60% to settle at 228.50 and Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:) which was down 2.47% to 47.00 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Biophytis (NASDAQ:) which rose 92.03% to 0.67, Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holding (NASDAQ:) which was up 60.08% to settle at 0.19 and Biodesix Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 47.06% to close at 2.00.

The worst performers were Aeglea Bio Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 65.98% to 0.41 in late trade, CN Energy Group Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 44.93% to settle at 0.82 and Pacifico Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:) which was down 43.13% to 5.38 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 2676 to 451 and 100 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2916 rose and 878 declined, while 170 ended unchanged.

Shares in CN Energy Group Inc (NASDAQ:) fell to all time lows; falling 44.93% or 0.67 to 0.82. Shares in Pacifico Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:) fell to all time lows; down 43.13% or 4.08 to 5.38.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.98% to 20.58.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 1.98% or 34.65 to $1,783.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 2.84% or 2.22 to hit $80.42 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 2.93% or 2.47 to trade at $86.72 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.76% to 1.04, while USD/JPY fell 0.43% to 138.09.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.75% at 105.96.