US Market Indexes Continue to Gain on Wednesday

U.S. market indexes gained on Wednesday with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing at new highs. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 21711.01 for a gain of 97.58 points or 0.45%. The S&P 500 closed at 2477.83 for a gain of 0.70 points or 0.03%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 6422.75 for a gain of 10.57 points or 0.16%. The VIX Volatility Index was higher for the day at 9.52 for a gain of 0.09 points or 0.95%.

Wednesday’s market movers

Stocks continued to gain with second-quarter earnings reports. Economic reports affecting market trading included the following:

• The Mortgage Bankers Association’s mortgage applications index increased by 0.4% for the week.
• New home sales increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000.
• The Federal Open Market Committee kept its federal funds rate at 1.00% to 1.25% following its two-day policy meeting.

In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led gains:

Boeing (BA, Financial) 9.87%

Coca-Cola (KO, Financial) 1.11%

Verizon (VZ, Financial) 0.96%

Visa (V, Financial) 0.86%

Chevron (CVX, Financial) 0.70%

General Electric (GE, Financial) 0.59%

Disney (DIS, Financial) 0.49%

Wal-Mart (WMT, Financial) 0.48%

Apple (AAPL, Financial) 0.47%

Goldman Sachs (GS, Financial) 0.30%

In the broad market, utilities, real estate and technology led gains. The S&P 500 utilities sector gained 0.95%. The S&P 500 real estate sector gained 0.83%. The S&P 500 technology sector gained 0.38%.

Small-cap stocks

In small-caps, the Russell 2000 Index closed at 1442.28 for a loss of -8.11 points or -0.56%. The S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 870.23 for a loss of -5.83 points or -0.67%. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Growth TSM Index closed at 8751.02 for a loss of -38.71 points or -0.44%. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Value TSM Index closed at 9729.82 for a loss of -63.76 points or -0.65%.

Other notable indexes

Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1776.69 for a loss of -15.24 points or -0.85%; the S&P 100 Index at 1091.47 for a gain of 1.40 points or 0.13%; the Russell 3000 Index at 1468.56 for a loss of -0.65 points or -0.04%; the Russell 1000 Index at 1373.53 for a loss of -0.02 points or 0.01%; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 664.36 for a loss of -3.04 points or -0.46%.