Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Dow Jones Oil & Gas, Dow Jones Basic Materials and Dow Jones Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.13% to hit a new 1-month low, while the S&P 500 index fell 1.35%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.93%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), which rose 5.61% or 7.43 points to trade at 139.91 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 0.20% or 0.16 points to end at 80.01 and 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) was up 0.19% or 0.31 points to 163.94 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which lost 4.20% or 4.55 points to trade at 103.71 in late trade. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) declined 3.45% or 1.47 points to end at 41.19 and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) shed 3.30% or 3.00 points to 87.95.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:EA) which rose 12.81% to 54.61, Total System Services Inc (NYSE:TSS) which was up 6.55% to settle at 36.46 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) which gained 5.65% to close at 115.31.
The worst performers were Nabors Industries Ltd (NYSE:NBR) which was down 11.70% to 10.49 in late trade, Denbury Resources Inc (NYSE:DNR) which lost 9.38% to settle at 6.47 and Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) which was down 7.81% to 66.02 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Axion Power International Inc (NASDAQ:AXPW) which rose 39.90% to 0.54, Hansen Medical Inc (NASDAQ:HNSN) which was up 30.48% to settle at 0.835 and ABIOMED Inc (NASDAQ:ABMD) which gained 29.28% to close at 49.94.
The worst performers were PostRock Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:PSTR) which was down 23.49% to 1.270 in late trade, Cleveland BioLabs Inc (NASDAQ:CBLI) which lost 22.74% to settle at 3.710 and Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHIP) which was down 12.71% to 0.611 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2448 to 346; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2126 fell and 640 advanced, while 7 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 18.52% to 20.41.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.53% or 6.90 to $1286.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March fell 4.01% or 1.85 to hit $44.38 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract fell 2.18% or 1.08 to trade at $48.52 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.87% to 1.1280, while USD/JPY fell 0.29% to 117.50.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.66% at 94.89.