US stocks closed higher, Dow Jones up 0.64% At the close on the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones rose 0.64%, the SP 500 index rose 0.95%, the NASDAQ Composite index rose 1.62%. Salesforce.com Inc was the top performer among the components of the Dow Jones index today, up 5.60 points or 3.34% to close at 173.05. Merck Company Inc rose 2.84 points or 3.19% to close at 92.00. Nike Inc rose 3.08 points or 2.94% to close at 108.00. The biggest losers were Caterpillar Inc, which shed 9.16 points or 4.88% to end the session at 178.67. Chevron Corp was up 3.68% or 5.44 points to close at 142.43, while Dow Inc was down 2.45% or 1.28 points to close at 51.06. . Among the SP 500 index components gainers in today''s trading were Autodesk Inc, which rose 8.43% to 183.41, FactSet Research Systems Inc, which gained 8.01% to close at 388.76, and also shares of Whirlpool Corporation, which rose 7.06% to close the session at 163.58. The biggest losers were The Mosaic Company, which shed 9.57% to close at 45.24. Shares of CF Industries Holdings Inc shed 9.01% to end the session at 80.60.