Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Healthcare and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.56%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.59%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.79%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which rose 0.72% or 0.93 points to trade at 129.33 at the close. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) added 0.62% or 0.50 points to end at 81.60 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was up 0.46% or 0.62 points to 135.16 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which lost 2.78% or 2.12 points to trade at 74.24 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 1.88% or 3.07 points to end at 160.07 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) shed 1.83% or 0.56 points to 30.07.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Intercontinentalexchange Group Inc (NYSE:ICE) which rose 7.27% to 258.49, ONEOK Inc (NYSE:OKE) which was up 6.65% to settle at 38.17 and NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) which gained 4.21% to close at 14.62.
The worst performers were Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UA) which was down 7.54% to 39.51 in late trade, Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:PCLN) which lost 7.50% to settle at 1253.04 and Under Armour Inc C (NYSE:UAc) which was down 6.80% to 37.390 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR) which rose 36.59% to 1.680, Appliance Recycling Centers (NASDAQ:ARCI) which was up 35.34% to settle at 1.8000 and Cleantech Solutions International (NASDAQ:CLNT) which gained 34.91% to close at 1.430.
The worst performers were LB Foster Company (NASDAQ:FSTR) which was down 32.68% to 12.34 in late trade, Fairway Group Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:FWM) which lost 29.40% to settle at 0.0550 and xG Technology Inc (NASDAQ:XGTI) which was down 28.71% to 0.1105 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2006 to 1301 and 28 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1692 fell and 861 advanced, while 67 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 3.27% to 16.11.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.79% or 10.25 to $1281.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.66% or 0.29 to hit $43.94 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.42% or 0.19 to trade at $44.78 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.04% to 1.1493, while USD/JPY rose 0.36% to 107.00.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.23% at 93.23.