Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Technology, Oil & Gas and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.43% to hit a new 1-month low, while the S&P 500 index fell 3.53%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 3.73%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which rose 2.12% or 2.53 points to trade at 121.62 at the close. 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) fell 1.73% or 2.79 points to end at 158.24 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) was down 1.80% or 1.03 points to 56.35 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which lost 5.06% or 10.78 points to trade at 202.47 in late trade. Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) declined 4.75% or 11.89 points to end at 238.41 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shed 4.67% or 5.45 points to 111.15.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Automatic Data Processing Inc (NASDAQ:ADP) which rose 6.18% to 155.06, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) which was up 4.51% to settle at 7.42 and Rollins Inc (NYSE:ROL) which gained 3.61% to close at 61.43.
The worst performers were CH Robinson Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:CHRW) which was down 11.46% to 88.57 in late trade, Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which lost 10.61% to settle at 12.30 and Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) which was down 9.21% to 16.57 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Miragen Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:MGEN) which rose 144.28% to 1.2700, Scholar Rock Holding Corp (NASDAQ:SRRK) which was up 44.60% to settle at 43.41 and Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:TTNP) which gained 29.49% to close at 0.1660.
The worst performers were Neovasc Inc (NASDAQ:NVCN) which was down 42.08% to 1.06 in late trade, Rekor Systems Inc (NASDAQ:REKR) which lost 31.25% to settle at 3.30 and Grindrod Shipping Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:GRIN) which was down 18.34% to 3.25 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2745 to 251 and 36 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2449 fell and 349 advanced, while 55 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 20.78% to 40.28 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.81% or 34.55 to $1877.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 5.59% or 2.21 to hit $37.36 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.02 to trade at $39.56 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.03% to 1.1747, while USD/JPY rose 0.02% to 104.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.60% at 93.480.