Wednesday’s Biggest Winners and Losers in the S&P 500

January 17, 2018 by Chris Lange

January 17, 2018: The S&P 500 closed up 0.9% at 2,802.57. The DJIA closed up 1.3% at 26,114.51. Separately, the Nasdaq was up 1.0% at 7,298.28.

Wednesday was an incredible day for the U.S. markets. Once again all three of the major averages hit all-time highs. Although we are only about two weeks into the new year, this is easily the best trading day for the markets in 2018. Crude oil started made a small recovery on Wednesday. The S&P 500 sectors were all positive. The best performing sectors were technology, consumer staples, and health care up 1.4%, 1.0%, and 0.9%, respectively. The worst performing sectors were consumer staples and materials, up only 0.4% each.

Crude oil was up 0.2% at $63.86.

Gold was down 0.6% at $1,329.30.

The S&P 500 stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Wednesday was Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST) which traded down roughly 6% at $52.16. The stock’s 52-week range is $39.79 to $56.15. Volume was over 8 million, compared with the daily average of 2.1 million shares.

The stock posting the largest daily percentage gain in the S&P 500 ahead of the close Wednesday was Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) which rose over 7% to $204.79. The stock’s 52-week range is $109.33 to $219.70. Volume was over 6 million compared to its average volume of 2.7 million.

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