U.S. shares higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.30% By Investing.com

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

At the close in NYSE, the rose 0.30% to hit a new all time high, while the index added 0.14%, and the index added 0.16%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the were Walmart Inc (NYSE:), which rose 0.97% or 1.51 points to trade at 157.92 at the close. Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:) added 0.93% or 2.64 points to end at 286.54 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:) was up 0.91% or 2.70 points to 298.33 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE:), which lost 0.82% or 0.89 points to trade at 107.13 in late trade. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:) declined 0.62% or 0.56 points to end at 90.39 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:) shed 0.45% or 0.17 points to 37.31.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:) which rose 3.49% to 100.73, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:) which was up 2.88% to settle at 873.98 and CarMax Inc (NYSE:) which gained 2.39% to close at 78.00.

The worst performers were Albemarle Corp (NYSE:) which was down 2.01% to 149.32 in late trade, Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 1.56% to settle at 136.55 and Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:) which was down 1.43% to 149.91 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Riskon International Inc (NASDAQ:) which rose 205.40% to 0.43, Cingulate Inc (NASDAQ:) which was up 90.91% to settle at 3.99 and Cytokinetics Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 82.56% to close at 83.45.

The worst performers were Ebix Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 32.16% to 1.16 in late trade, Bluejay Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 30.77% to settle at 1.80 and Brilliant Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:) which was down 28.77% to 2.60 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1699 to 1172 and 85 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1909 rose and 1512 declined, while 112 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.31% to 12.43.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.91% or 18.85 to $2,088.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 2.25% or 1.70 to hit $73.87 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 1.87% or 1.51 to trade at $79.34 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.55% to 1.11, while USD/JPY fell 0.39% to 141.83.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.47% at 100.63.