U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.80% 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 rose 0.80%, while the index gained 1.28%, and the index climbed 1.76%.

The best performers of the session on the were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:), which rose 3.02% or 6.92 points to trade at 235.77 at the close. Meanwhile, Home Depot Inc (NYSE:) added 2.60% or 8.35 points to end at 328.98 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:) was up 2.11% or 2.76 points to 133.49 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:), which fell 1.84% or 0.77 points to trade at 41.18 at the close. Salesforce Inc (NYSE:) declined 1.76% or 2.59 points to end at 144.85 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:) was down 0.81% or 1.23 points to 150.66.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc (NYSE:) which rose 6.51% to 461.09, Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:) which was up 6.11% to settle at 134.69 and SolarEdge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 5.84% to close at 302.15.

The worst performers were Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:) which was down 7.60% to 239.77 in late trade, DexCom Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 4.26% to settle at 106.16 and Intuitive Surgical Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 4.20% to 259.96 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Atlis Motor Vehicles Inc (NASDAQ:) which rose 276.12% to 10.08, Broadwind Energy Inc (NASDAQ:) which was up 96.90% to settle at 4.45 and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 68.60% to close at 3.49.

The worst performers were Tantech Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:) which was down 28.10% to 2.20 in late trade, American Virtual Cloud Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 24.65% to settle at 1.07 and Kala Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 20.27% to 21.00 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 2342 to 730 and 95 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2505 rose and 1243 declined, while 134 ended unchanged.

Shares in Broadwind Energy Inc (NASDAQ:) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 96.90% or 2.19 to 4.45.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.48% to 21.09.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.23% or 4.35 to $1,880.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 3.31% or 2.49 to hit $77.61 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 3.47% or 2.78 to trade at $82.88 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.21% to 1.08, while USD/JPY rose 0.14% to 132.43.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 102.97.