shares of vertex pharmaceuticals inc vrtx inched 068 higher to 20661 wednesday on what proved to be an allaround positive trading session for the stock market with the sp 500 index spx rising 031 to 470121 and the dow jones industrial average djia rising 010 to 3575475 this was the stocks third consecutive day of gains vertex pharmaceuticals inc closed 3638 below its 52week high 24299 which the company reached on january 25th the stock demonstrated a mixed performance when compared to some of its competitors wednesday as johnson  johnson jnj rose 060 to 16434 merck  co inc mrk rose 129 to 7321 and abbvie inc abbv rose 030 to 12187 trading volume 13 m remained 581139 below its 50day average volume of 19 m editors note this story was autogenerated by automated insights an automation technology provider using data from dow jones and factset see our market data terms of use