U.S. equities closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.56% as gains in technology and financial stocks offset declines in other blue-chip names. The S&P 500 added 0.46% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.45%, while the S&P 500 VIX volatility index fell 6.79% to 15.23.
Advancing issues outpaced decliners on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. On the NYSE, 1,680 stocks rose against 1,040 that fell, with 95 unchanged. On the Nasdaq, 2,156 advanced versus 1,256 that declined, alongside 199 that were unchanged.
Among Dow components, NVIDIA led gains with a 3.21% rise to close at $224.41, followed by American Express at 1.79% to $329.98 and Caterpillar at 1.68% to $792.26. Decliners included Honeywell, down 1.86% to $206.08, 3M at 0.88% to $168.75 and Microsoft at 0.84% to $496.82.
The S&P 500 saw Dell Technologies surge 15.81% to $492.20, FMC climb 12.21% to $13.33 and Charter Communications gain 8.74% to $158.97. Losses were led by Palo Alto Networks, down 9.28% to $328.48, Edison International at 6.14% to $55.19 and Palantir Technologies at 5.81% to $169.46.
In the Nasdaq Composite, smaller-cap names posted outsized moves. Viomi Technology surged 83.64% to $1.78, bioAffinity Technologies gained 47.95% to $9.75 and GoPro rose 37.40% to $1.69. Several stocks hit historical lows, including Advasa Holdings, down 53.26% to $1.72, Tscan Therapeutics at 42.80% to $0.38 and CDT Equity at 38.51% to $0.91.
Commodities were broadly firmer. Gold futures for December delivery rose 0.85% to $4,433.84 per troy ounce, while West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery gained 0.41% to $90.59 per barrel. Brent crude for November delivery advanced 0.57% to $95.19 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar index futures were up 0.12% at 99.52, while the euro held steady at $1.16 versus the dollar. The dollar slipped 0.92% against the yen to 158.70.
