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March 29, 2017: The S&P 500 closed higher on the day, up 0.11 % and 2.56 points to 2,361.14. Separately the DJIA closed down 0.20% on the day at 20,659.39, down approximately 42.11 points. The question remains if the DJIA gain on Tuesday was just a head fake as the index is lower versus the Nasdaq and the S&P500.

The recovery that oil has made on Tuesday and Wednesday has driven the energy sector higher with a large number of companies posting gains over 1% to 2%, some even as high as 8%. Other green arrows were seen in large-cap tech stocks, department stores, and textiles. On the other hand, major financial stocks were fairly negative as well as practically the entire utilities sector.

Crude oil actually pushed higher in Wednesday’s session up 2.2% at $49.44.

Gold, while still above the $1,200 level, dropped slightly on the day, down 0.2% or $2.80 on the day, closing at $1,252.80.

The S&P 500 stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Wednesday was F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) which traded down 3.4% at $142.09. The stock’s 52-week range is $93.64 to $149.50. Volume was roughly 1.4 million versus the daily average of 673,000 million shares.

The stock posting the largest daily percentage gain in the S&P 500 ahead of the close Wednesday was Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) which jumped 19% to $106.93. The stock’s 52-week range is $71.46 to $111.88. Volume was 13.1 million which is above the daily average of around 1.6 million shares.