Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.39%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.28%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), which rose 2.16% or 1.05 points to trade at 49.65 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 1.86% or 1.48 points to end at 80.98 and 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) was up 1.46% or 2.44 points to 169.74 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which lost 2.05% or 3.82 points to trade at 182.78 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 1.80% or 3.59 points to end at 195.52 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) shed 1.66% or 5.97 points to 352.78.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) which rose 7.78% to 77.56, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) which was up 3.27% to settle at 320.09 and Advance Auto Parts Inc (NYSE:AAP) which gained 3.09% to close at 166.29.
The worst performers were Lowe’s Companies Inc (NYSE:LOW) which was down 11.85% to 97.94 in late trade, Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) which lost 10.86% to settle at 69.31 and Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN) which was down 9.25% to 34.35 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Obalon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:OBLN) which rose 237.66% to 1.30, Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA) which was up 51.33% to settle at 1.37 and Proteon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PRTO) which gained 50.94% to close at 0.62.
The worst performers were Tocagen Inc (NASDAQ:TOCA) which was down 38.66% to 5.41 in late trade, Genetic Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:GENE) which lost 33.33% to settle at 0.680 and OncoSec Medical Inc (NASDAQ:ONCS) which was down 32.50% to 2.700 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1927 to 1044 and 116 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1746 fell and 876 advanced, while 104 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.34% to 14.75.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.02% or 0.25 to $1272.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 2.85% or 1.80 to hit $61.33 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.04% or 0.03 to trade at $70.86 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 1.1152, while USD/JPY fell 0.01% to 110.33.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 97.960.