At the close of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones rose 1.27% to a 3-month high, the S&P 500 rose 1.73% and the NASDAQ Composite rose 2.09%.
The leading performer among the components of the Dow Jones index today was Walt Disney Company, which gained 3.88 points or 3.30% to close at 121.57. Merck & Company Inc rose 2.09 points or 2.35% to close at 91.02. Apple Inc rose 2.15% or 3.63 points to close at 172.12.
The biggest losers were Johnson & Johnson, which shed 1.84 points or 1.10% to end the session at 165.30. Amgen Inc was down 0.04 points (0.02%) to close at 248.39, while Visa Inc Class A was up 0.25 points (0.12%) to close at 211. .33.
Leading gainers among the S&P 500 index components in today's trading were Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc, which rose 7.93% to hit 183.19, Albemarle Corp, which gained 5.98% to close at 281.60, and also shares of Penn National Gaming Inc, which rose 5.90% to close the session at 37.70.
The biggest losers were Illumina Inc, which shed 8.40% to close at 208.32. Shares of PerkinElmer Inc lost 1.89% to end the session at 157.91. Quotes of Organon & Co decreased in price by 1.34% to 30.99.
Leading gainers among the components of the NASDAQ Composite in today's trading were Embark Technology Inc, which rose 84.80% to hit 1.07, Twin Vee Powercats Co, which gained 77.50% to close at 7.10. as well as AN2 Therapeutics Inc, which rose 64.66% to close the session at 19.38.
The drop leaders were Performance Shipping Inc, which shed 44.88% to close at 0.34. Shares of PLx Pharma Inc shed 36.68% to end the session at 1.64. Quotes of Imac Holdings Inc decreased in price by 33.36% to 0.63.
On the New York Stock Exchange, the number of securities that rose in price (2517) exceeded the number of those that closed in the red (588), while quotes of 123 shares remained virtually unchanged. On the NASDAQ stock exchange, 2,762 companies rose in price, 988 fell, and 200 remained at the level of the previous close.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which is based on S&P 500 options trading, fell 3.32% to 19.53, hitting a new 3-month low.
The consumer sentiment index of the University of Michigan, which reflects the degree of household confidence in the US economy, according to preliminary estimates, rose to 55.1 points in August from 51.5 points in July, with an expected increase to 52.5 points.
Gold futures for December delivery added 0.53%, or 9.55, to hit $1.00 a troy ounce. In other commodities, WTI crude for September delivery fell 2.63%, or 2.48, to $91.86 a barrel. Brent oil futures for October delivery fell 1.69%, or 1.68, to $97.92 a barrel.
Meanwhile, on the Forex market, EUR/USD fell 0.57% to 1.03, while USD/JPY edged up 0.39% to hit 133.52.
Futures on the USD index rose 0.54% to 105.56.