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 fell 0.29%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.24%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which rose 0.53% or 0.19 points to trade at 35.89 at the close. Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) added 0.42% or 0.18 points to end at 43.42 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) was up 0.26% or 0.30 points to 115.66 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which lost 1.09% or 1.11 points to trade at 100.59 in late trade. Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) declined 1.05% or 1.37 points to end at 129.44 and EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD) shed 0.91% or 0.64 points to 69.60.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Signet Jewelers Ltd (NYSE:SIG) which rose 2.55% to 81.97, Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE:ADS) which was up 1.96% to settle at 204.64 and SL Green Realty Corporation (NYSE:SLG) which gained 1.92% to close at 117.46.
The worst performers were H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) which was down 10.43% to 21.68 in late trade, Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) which lost 5.55% to settle at 26.74 and Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) which was down 5.29% to 36.17 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were SkyPeople Fruit Juice Inc (NASDAQ:SPU) which rose 51.44% to 12.6000, Wins Finance Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:WINS) which was up 32.14% to settle at 25.41 and Roka Biosci (NASDAQ:ROKA) which gained 26.09% to close at 1.1600.
The worst performers were Atossa Genetics Inc (NASDAQ:ATOS) which was down 28.32% to 2.4800 in late trade, AeroVironment Inc (NASDAQ:AVAV) which lost 16.95% to settle at 24.74 and Yulong Eco-Materials Ltd (NASDAQ:YECO) which was down 16.55% to 2.420 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1957 to 1191 and 116 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1586 fell and 939 advanced, while 114 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.21% to 13.41.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.36% or 4.75 to $1311.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 3.28% or 1.52 to hit $44.83 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 3.59% or 1.75 to trade at $46.98 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.12% to 1.1156, while USD/JPY rose 0.47% to 103.47.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 96.03.