Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Utilities and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.60%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.81%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.50%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 0.58% or 1.38 points to trade at 239.93 at the close. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) added 0.31% or 0.23 points to end at 74.07 and Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) was up 0.19% or 0.20 points to 104.05 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which lost 2.37% or 2.28 points to trade at 93.74 in late trade. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) declined 2.16% or 2.00 points to end at 90.58 and Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) shed 1.40% or 2.19 points to 154.47.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which rose 5.79% to 96.45, Twenty-First Century Fox A Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) which was up 3.62% to settle at 28.02 and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which gained 3.19% to close at 113.52.
The worst performers were Universal Health Services Inc (NYSE:UHS) which was down 6.83% to 101.55 in late trade, Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE:NEM) which lost 6.47% to settle at 31.68 and Transocean Ltd (NYSE:RIG) which was down 5.02% to 14.58 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Vericel Corp Ord (NASDAQ:VCEL) which rose 57.69% to 4.100, ESSA Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:EPIX) which was up 21.63% to settle at 2.530 and Brainstorm Cell Therapuetics Inc (NASDAQ:BCLI) which gained 21.86% to close at 2.6200.
The worst performers were First NBC Bank Holding Company (NASDAQ:FNBC) which was down 25.00% to 7.20 in late trade, Merus Labs International Inc (NASDAQ:MSLI) which lost 20.32% to settle at 0.829 and Delta Technology Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:DELT) which was down 18.69% to 0.8700 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2577 to 666 and 28 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1843 fell and 694 advanced, while 86 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 4.01% to 13.23.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 1.29% or 15.00 to $1144.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 3.94% or 2.09 to hit $50.89 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 3.43% or 1.91 to trade at $53.81 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.88% to 1.0531, while USD/JPY rose 1.59% to 117.02.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.97% at 102.06.